Deadly Treasure
by acclutch94
Summary: C.J. ends up leading the investigation into a missing person case at a university when Matt gets shot.  Just borrowing Aaron Spelling's characters and creating a few new ones and a university.
1. Chapter 1

Gunshots ring out across the bay. The rather large boat rocks up and down with the waves and only 20 minutes ago all was peaceful. They were hard at work, collecting, measuring and documenting all they had found. They were excited by their find and looked anxiously to the near future when they would present their findings to the academic community. This could set each one of them up for academic greatness, an incredible discovery. Their hard work would all pay off now. After cataloging all of these treasures, they would need to sit down and sort through all the evidence. Then came the task of interpreting the evidence and clearly and concisely explaining what they found in the multiple journal articles and conferences they were bound to be invited to and contribute to. It was all so exciting. But 5 minutes ago, everything changed.

So wrapped up they were in their work that no one noticed the quiet motored boat that approached from the east. Three armed gunmen silently made their way on to the deck and cautiously and slowly made their way down one set of stairs. They could hear them talking below deck.

"I knew it was here," Dr. Michelle Henderson said with such joy as she looked at the two Research Assistants helping out. "I've looked over those manifests and colonial official documents for years." The discovery was a true relief in more ways than one. First of all, as a tenure-track professor, she was expected to publish annually. For the last few years, the publications all said basically the same thing, more or less different versions of the same argument. Her point about Spanish involvement in the Philippines in trade in the 1500s wasn't exactly new either. If she wanted to be tenured, hold that coveted full time position and secure for herself a place in the highly competitive world of academic historians, she would need something new to say on a topic already discussed by 38 other world famous scholars. This discovery provided the evidence to support her argument and further the historical significance of the trade between China and Spain via the Philippines in the historiography of Imperial Spain and the importance of their holdings in the Americas. Looking at her two helpers here, she was already thinking about how she would list them in her acknowledgments for the book she planned to start next month.

Michael Tucker the Research Assistant there on loan from Dr. Alexander Whitehead looked up smiling as he carefully pulled out a small blue and white vase from a special solution used to clean it off and said, "This is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. I can't believe it, we found actual shipwreck treasure. This is so awesome!" The 20 year old still felt like he was living in some kind of pirate movie.

Gabrielle Aleman, Dr. Henderson's Research Assistant concurred, "This is totally awesome!" She was working with Michael by cataloging everything in a notebook as he cleaned it all. "I can't wait to tell my parents I did this, or the other graduate students. They are going to be so jealous. I knew applying to be your RA was the right decision, but I had no idea it would be this incredibly awesome!"

The three laughed and then heard something drop on the roof. They looked at each other and Michael offered to go up and look but Michelle stopped him. "No, you two keep working on this. I'll go up and see what's going on. It's probably just the rig we used to haul this stuff up or maybe some of the scuba equipment fell over. I'll be back in a minute."

She left the room happily enough until she got to the stairs. She didn't even see one of the three men, she didn't have time. He hid behind a closet door and when she walked by he grabbed her from behind and slit her throat with a knife before dragging her lifeless body into the closet.

The two RAs kept working but noticed it got awfully quiet. Gabrielle offered to go check on Dr. Henderson. She had already documented the tea cup Michael had cleaned and it would take him a while to clean off the plate next so since she really couldn't record anything she went looking for her boss. She noticed blood right away in the hallway by the closet and as she stopped to examine it, two men suddenly appeared at the top of the stairwell. Both were armed with machine guns. She screamed which Michael heard and came running out. As soon as both were trapped in that hallway the men opened fire and killed both.

The only ones now on board alive were the killers. They walked right into the room the three had just occupied, happy and having what they thought was the best day of their lives. They had no idea it would be their last and that they had only minutes to live. The discovery that they thought secured their future had just destroyed any future they could have had.

C.J. sat, cross legged on the floor of her own house. She had a notepad in hand and was cataloging everything she had just piled into a fairly large cardboard box. She took a black marker and put a _31_ on the side of it to match the 31 she had in her book.

Matt walked in, clearly exhausted, sweating and breathing heavy and asked, "C.J., where are we going to put all this stuff? The beach house isn't that big and I've already filled up that UHaul out there."

C.J. closed the notebook, got up, walked over to Matt, put her hands on his face and kissed him softly on the mouth and then said, "I have a storage unit already paid for, its close enough to the beach house that I can get into it if I need to. When we find that bigger house, the one with all the bedrooms…" He started smiling at the thought of bedrooms for little ones, "then I should have plenty of room for all this stuff."

Matt smiled back and kissed her again with his arms around her waist. Then he looked around at the few remaining things that needed to be boxed up and loaded. Most of what remained were small, fragile type items. There were some picture frames, knickknacks and a couple of books. One particular item caught his eye and he left her and walked over to it. He had spotted 3 green blown glass ducks, a momma, a daddy and a baby duck. He picked up the largest one and held it as he asked her, "Green ducks?"

C.J. smiled and started to laugh a little bit. A few years ago they were working on a case involving an actress everyone thought was the target of some deranged killer. Ramona Landers had sold Matt her ranch outside the city and Matt felt a duty to try to find out who was trying to hurt her. In the course of the investigation they had to interview Miles Gantry, a jeweler on Rodeo Drive. After talking to him and as Matt was flirting with a model, a salesman named Rick waltzed by them and took C.J. in his arms for a second and asked "Tell me, how are the green ducks," to which she replied, "never better."

The look on Matt's face, C.J. thought was priceless. He seemed confused and maybe even a little jealous as he asked who that was and what was he doing there and what exactly did he mean by the green ducks. She in that split second decided to have a little fun at Matt's expense and pay him pack for flirting with the model right there in front of her. I mean, how dare he? It was ok for him to flirt, but not her? So she asked him if he knew what a green duck was and when he said he didn't, she made it seem like it was some private, perhaps even dirty little secret he didn't get. She amused herself for the next few days as Matt tried in vain to figure out exactly what she was talking about, especially when Rick took her to dinner the next night. She secretly wondered why Matt decided to not only spy on her date, but sabotage it by paying a waiter to spill spaghetti on Rick when they got their food.

She totally got him back though because she had a little talk with Mama, Rosa Novelli, the owner of that particular restaurant and their good friend. She explained the trick she was pulling on Matt. Mama not only agreed to go along with it, but made it sound even worse when Matt asked her if she knew what green ducks were by slapping him first and then saying, "C.J.'s a good girl, she should know from…green ducks….don't you tell her."

Now a couple of years later the gig was up. Her laughter told him it was all a trick. She explained, "I met Rick at an art gallery opening. He told me he made glass sculptures out of blown glass and he showed me those. You know green is my favorite color, that's why I love emeralds. So he offered those to me in exchange for a date. Running into him that day was absolutely perfect in so many ways. It gave me the chance to pay him back by scheduling a date and it made you turn about as green as that duck you're holding." She was smiling from ear to ear.

Matt put down the duck and put his arms around his wife's waist and said, "I think I made out a lot better than Rick did."

She put her hands on his chest and said, "I would say so. If I recall you spied on me during that date and caused the waiter to have a little accident?"

Matt nodded as he looked in her eyes, "I didn't know exactly why at the time, but the idea of you out with him bothered me, especially since I knew you were keeping something from me with the green ducks."

C.J. smiled back and then kissed him, another slow scorching kiss that she loved sharing so much with him and said, "Well you flirting with that model bothered me. I don't like sharing you."

Matt smiled back at her and said, "So its mutual, cause I don't like sharing you either. So, tell me, how exactly did you get Mama in on this?"

C.J. chuckled, "Oh she was so on board with this little prank. I think she always thought we should be together. She told me a couple of times, but back then I didn't really think you'd ever look at me that way." He noted a hint of sadness in her voice and in her eyes for just a second.

Matt brought her in for another long, slow and quite intense kiss before saying, "I loved you. I just didn't want to hurt you. I wasn't exactly the monogamous type back then, but I am now. I will never hurt you like that C.J., I want to make sure you know that. I love you more than anything else. Those days are behind me, you are my future." He moved around behind her with his hands on her waist and started kissing her neck and rubbing her abdomen as he continued, "And hopefully in a year or so, we will start the next generation of Houstons."

C.J. placed her hands on his on her abdomen and said, "That sounds so nice and I can't wait. I just want to make sure I'm in the best possible shape and I give our child the best possible start." The lawyer in her had successfully argued with her psyche that she needed to prepare her body in advance for pregnancy before actually becoming pregnant. Not to mention the fact that Matt's own mother died in childbirth and knew how that impacted his life. She thought Matt might have disagreed, but he seemed a little relieved actually when they discussed it a month ago. He pulled her hair back softly from her shoulder and slowly made his way from her neck to her earlobe and before she knew it, they were back in her old bedroom, laying out on the floor in a couple of unpacked blankets after being quite unproductive for an hour. They were quite happy though.


	2. Chapter 2

2

Matt got in early Monday morning. C.J. would be following behind in his BMW, the one he pulled out of the parking garage for her last week. He knew she was going to see a new doctor this morning. At first he had insisted he go with her, but she told him this was merely the first meeting and she was going to have a couple of routine things done he probably wouldn't want to see. So he decided to head in to the penthouse.

Since no one else had arrived yet, he went downstairs to the gym to work out. He had slowed down the defense training for C.J. and Chris when both refused to go any further until he took what Chris called, "a chill pill". He had already been thinking he might be pushing C.J. too hard but wasn't about to admit defeat. Yet, seeing the two of them standing in front of him essentially threatening to go on strike caused him to relent. On top of that, he and C.J. had gone out sailing and discussed when they wanted to start a family. He knew he would have to back off the workout if she got pregnant. In fact he was thinking about all the different ways he was going to make her slow down in general and exactly how he was going to accomplish all this when he knew how stubborn she could be.

He smiled as he thought back to that afternoon. In his plan, they would begin right away, perhaps even that very afternoon, working sort of speak on starting that family. For the last 2 years he had thought so much about what he wanted out of life. Being a private investigator gave him a level of satisfaction with his life that he knew he could not live without. It wasn't just the adrenalin rush of chasing some criminal down or the money that could be made in his profession. No, it was helping people that really satisfied him. He had all the money he could ever need and then some and while chasing down criminals was exciting, it was also dangerous. Truth be told, he loved his life now and felt this strange new imperative to preserve it.

However with the job comes risk. Many of the women who came in and out of his life couldn't handle it. It had frustrated him over and over at how much he wanted that stable, solid relationship with a woman, not to mention family, only to watch one after the other tell him it was too much. During those days he thought it would never happen. The family, the life he envisioned would never become a reality. Looking back now he realized that what he mourned each time was the loss of the dream, not necessarily the loss of the woman or relationship he just had. It had taken him too long, in his opinion, to realize that the one true love of his life was standing beside him the whole time.

It struck Matt as interesting as his emotions shifted over and over as he contemplated this new life he had in store for him and C.J. His lifelong best friend became his lover and wife. Everything was so different with her because she wasn't just any woman, she was C.J. and that made everything different. Making love to her each time still seemed a little surreal to him. The pleasure was immeasurable at the very sight of her and joining with her, well, not only was it amazing but the very fact that it was her caused him suck in his breath just thinking about it.

He knew he wanted nothing more than to have children with her. It almost seem natural or predestined in some way even though their relationship had changed fairly recently. When she responded to his questions about their future together and whether or not, or when, children would come along, it just reinforced for him the rightness of their relationship. She was enthusiastic, but also cautious. Watching Matt struggle with never really knowing his own mother because of her untimely death, C.J. knew Matt would worry she could meet the same fate, dying in childbirth. So, she told him she had thought quite a bit about how much she wanted a family with him and that she planned to prepare her body in any way necessary to ensure that both she and their children would thrive. That was where she was this morning, starting the whole process for the both of them.

Chris came in and sat down her cup of coffee she got from the street vendor outside on her desk. She noticed the light on the phone blinking signaling that a message was waiting. She dialed it in and took out a notepad and pencil.

"Mr. Houston, my name is Walter Aleman. I need to hire you. I don't have a lot of money, but my daughter…" he was crying in to the phone and Chris could hear more sobs coming from someone else in the background, "she is missing. She is a college student and she went out on a research mission with her teacher and no one has heard from them. I don't have a lot of money, but please, she is my, our only child. My number is…" Chris took the number down and went to find Matt.

Matt was jumping rope as Chris announced herself, "Houston, C.J.? Are you guys here?"

Matt stopped, wiped the sweat off his brow and said, "Yes Chris, I'm here. C.J.'s running an errand. What do you need?"

Chris got to the bottom step and showed Matt the message, "It could be a new case. A father is looking for his daughter, he thinks she's missing. Should I call this number back and set up an appointment? He sounded really upset in his message."

Matt nodded his head and said, "Yea, go ahead. I'll finish up here and be up in a second. C.J. should be along in a couple of hours and I can brief her when she gets here. Set it up for anytime, just give me about 30 minutes to change. See if you can get any other information that I could plug into Baby before he gets here." He walked over and took a towel and wiped his whole face.

Chris turned back around and said, "Will do" as she walked back up the stairs to her desk. She got Mr. Aleman back on the phone told him that Mr. Houston appears willing to take the case and wanted to meet with him as soon as possible.

Walter replied, "I can be up there in an hour. I'm not going to work today, I can't. I have to know where she is and why she hasn't called us. Something is wrong, I know it."

Chris asked, "Is there anything you can tell me that I can pass along to Mr. Houston so he can start his investigation? Something like, names of her friends or where she is going to college and the name of the teacher you said she was working for?"

He answered, "She is a graduate student at Los Angeles State University. Her major is history and she was working for a woman, a Dr. Henderson or something like that. She just became a research assistant and this was her first research trip. She promised she would call and she did, every night until Friday night. We didn't hear from her at all. Nothing all weekend. She hasn't made that many friends at the school. She just transferred there from a much smaller school she went to in Florida. That was her first time away from home. She came back home to be with us. Her mother is ill and she easily got into this history program. I insisted she live on campus though and she has her own dorm room. I'm afraid I wouldn't know the names of any friends that are living here because she is always too wrapped up in helping us and doing schoolwork to really get out much and make those friends. She was only close to a couple of people in the neighborhood back in high school and they have all moved out of state. I don't know what else to tell you."

Chris took down all this information and told him, "This should be good to start. I'll give the information to Mr. Houston right away and he can meet you in about an hour. So let's say 9:30 ok?"

He answered, "Yes, yes that will be fine. Thank you so much. I hate to ask this, but can you tell me his fee. I have some things I can pawn to raise the money, I just need to know."

Chris knew Matt and C.J. would probably never send this guy a bill so she simply said, "Usually Mr. Houston works something out with all his clients. I wouldn't worry about those issues so much right now. See you at 9:30."


	3. Chapter 3

3

Three men await their contact at a warehouse on the dock. They have 40 wooden crates filled with the artifacts Dr. Henderson and her RAs were working on. They are dressed in very casual clothes and have hidden in the warehouse all 40 crates. A black sedan pulls up and the driver asks, "Is it all here?"

The largest of the three, steps up and says, "Yeah, its all here. Just inside. Where's our cut?"

The driver replies as an envelope is slipped out the window, "Here's half. The rest is coming I told you. Once I sell these you will get it. Trust me, I know what all of this is worth and I think I can get top dollar. In fact, you may even get more than we originally agreed to."

The man counts the money and then hands the envelope to one of the men behind him. He signals to the two to open the gate and let the car in. He then turns back to the driver and says, "You know there were three people we had to take care of. That wasn't what you told us. I heard one talking about their parents too."

The driver simply replied, "Look, you got paid, right? It was nothing more than a job. Now I have a job to do. Parents lose their kids all the time, in fact I can give you a whole lecture on mortality rates in history. Now move out of my way or you won't end up getting the other half of your money."

The man stepped back and the car disappeared into the warehouse where all three men closed the door behind them.

C.J. had sat on that cold examination table long enough. She met with this new, young doctor, Dr. Samaras and she had done an ultrasound and blood work since C.J. had just had an annual physical six months ago and her gall bladder removed. Now C.J. was able to get dressed again and would wait for her to return with all the pamphlets and information she needed to begin planning her family.

Dr. Samaras knocked on the door, "Are you ready?" she asked.

C.J. was just slipping back on her stylish dress boots with the small heel. "Yes doctor I am."

She came in the room and sat down opposite of C.J. on a little stool. "Ok, well I have here some informational booklets on pregnancy, a magazine for expectant mothers and some samples of folic acid pills which you should begin taking pretty soon. I also think it would be a good idea for you to get on a comprehensive multivitamin regularly as well."

C.J. took everything handed to her in the clear plastic bag and said, "Thank you so much for all this. I will get started right away and I also wanted to make sure I can keep up my regular workout schedule and all of my other daily activities."

Dr. Samaras chuckled for a second and said, "Well from what you've told me about your workout and your job, I think you should be fine. Although I wouldn't advise getting shot at too often."

C.J. chuckled back, "Well, that's always a goal of mine." Then she got serious again, "I know what I do is dangerous and I fully do intend to back off from time to time. In fact, most of the time I've worked for Matt, he has done his best to keep me out of any direct line of fire. Usually he tells me to stay put in the penthouse when the case gets dangerous. I will however, be much more aware of these things when and if I do get pregnant."

Dr. Samaras nodded her head and continued, "I know you told me his mother died in childbirth, so if its ok with the both of you, I plan to request her medical records from Texas. Since it will be his child you are carrying, we want to make sure there are no genetic disorders we need to be concerned about. I will look over the medical history you filled out on your side of the family later today and by our next visit, which should be when you plan to go off birth control, we can discuss any other potential issues."

C.J. nodded her head and didn't want to bring up just yet that there was little information on that actual form. Since both her parents died when she was little, she never had a chance to ask questions like if there was a family history of cancer or blood disorders or anything else. In fact, she didn't like to think about it too often because it still hurt and in some odd way she couldn't remember much about their actual death. Anyway, they were in the early stages here and she could figure all this out later.

She got up and walked out with all this information and got in her car. A smile crept on her face as she found the pamphlet on baby names. She flipped through it for a second before starting her car as she thought about how real this all could be in only a matter of months. She had kept her maiden name when she and Matt married because of her feelings for her father. His death came first. She had been so close to him and she wanted his name to live on. She also thought about naming her firstborn son, if she had a son, after his father. She was still traditional in some ways. All of these were happy problems she and Matt could mull over in the coming months. All the medical stuff the doctor would handle, she knew, but the talk about risks still unnerved her. She didn't think she would ever be able to bear losing a child.

Matt sat in front of Baby. He had plugged in the names their potential client had given them. He pulled up info on LASU and Michelle Henderson after finding next to nothing on Gabrielle Aleman other than her academic schedule and GPA. Apparently Henderson was an assistant professor when most of the others were associate professors. Matt thought there could be something to that so he would go down there if necessary to check it out, in case this were an actual missing person case.

He still was not entirely convinced and silently hoped that the missing 22 year old had just been off partying way too hard to think to check in with her parents over the weekend. That would surely be the best case scenario. However, if something were amiss, he knew time would be of the essence. Once someone goes missing, the chances of finding that person alive after 24 hours are next to zero and her parents hadn't heard from her in over 72. It caused him to pause for a moment, now that he and C.J. were planning on having children, the very thought of losing one made him almost shudder.

Other than the basic biographical information the website provided, there wasn't much about Michelle Henderson. She received a B.A. in history from a university in Oregon, an M.A./Ph.D. from a university in New Mexico. Everything on her resume or curriculum vita, as it was called, seemed to indicate she worked hard and devoted most of her energy to her research which involved the Spanish government when they colonized the Americas after Columbus.

Matt began looking for more social information about her. He stumbled across a secret student rating service for LASU students and found that she appeared well liked by most of her students. He did notice a couple of harsh and potentially libelous entries and took note of those, but overall she was listed as being in the top 10 at the college as a teacher. So Gabrielle was off with one of the most well liked professors on campus working on some major research project that required travel. It seemed fairly innocent to him.


	4. Chapter 4

4

Matt heard the elevator and turned around to see a short stalky man introducing himself to Chris. She started to get up and lead him into the penthouse when Matt reaches them and extends his hand out and introduces himself, "you must be Mr. Aleman."

The man nods, "Walter, please. Thank you so much for meeting with me." Matt leads him over to the bar and starts to pour two cups of coffee.

"Something's wrong. I know something's wrong. I can feel it. Do you have children Mr. Houston?" he asks as Matt hands him a cup.

The question struck Matt for just a second, "No, no I don't. At least not yet."

Walter took one sip and said, "Gaby is my whole life. I can't explain it, you know, the way you feel when you see that little face for the first time. It doesn't matter how old they get or how grown up they are, to you, they are always going to be your little baby. I can't…..I can't bear to think about losing her. Not seeing her again." He started to get choked up.

Matt walked around and patted him on the back and said, "Come over here to the couch and let's talk." They walked over in front of Baby, put away for the time being. "Now I did some checking into Gaby's status at LASU and found her schedule and her GPA. She seems like a very bright, intelligent girl. Are you sure she's missing? You didn't say where the research trip was supposed to take place, are you sure they just aren't in a place that doesn't have access to a phone?"

Walter shook his head, "She was calling us, daily from wherever it was she was at. She wouldn't tell us, something about the location being a secret or part of the actual research itself. I don't know. I just know she could call us every night until Friday night and then nothing. I called her resident advisor in the dorm and they haven't heard from her either. I'm so scared. I just know something has happened. I can't explain how, I just know." He lost control and started crying just as C.J. made it back into the penthouse.

Chris briefed her and told her about the case and that Mr. Aleman and Matt were in talking. C.J. could hear him sobbing and her heart went out to him. She leaned back over to Chris and asked, "His daughter is twenty-something, right?"

Chris nodded her head, "Yeah, 22 I think he said but he seems convinced something really bad has happened to her."

C.J. peeked in and saw Matt trying to comfort the distraught father and whispered to Chris, "Let's hope he's wrong and she has just been out having a good time." They both nodded and C.J. left and went into her office through the hallway. She had a couple of forms Murray sent over for her to go through and then she planned to work with her husband to find this daughter and reunite her with her family.

Matt joined her soon enough in her office. She looked up through the mountain of paperwork Murray left. Initially she had just sighed and thought to herself, 'I guess what I consider a couple of things and what Murray considers a couple of things, are two clearly different things'.

She looked up as Matt walked in. His face betrayed how emotional the case would be. "So we have a new client I think."

She got up and walked over to him, put her arms around him and held him for a second. "Ok, why don't we go sit down with Baby and see what we can find out."

They turned and Matt slipped his arm around her shoulder as they walked through her office to the couch in the penthouse.

Matt started to explain everything as they sat down, "Well all he knows is she was on some research expedition with her professor, Dr. Michelle Henderson. I haven't been able to find much on her other than she is an assistant professor, not an associate professor."

C.J. thought about that for a second, "So she's not a tenured professor."

Matt looked at his wife and then thought back for a second to how dedicated she was in college and probably knew more about the academic setting than he did. So he asked, "What does that mean? Tenured?"

C.J. answered, "Well, being tenured means you have a full time position and you really can't get fired. Back at UT Austin, we made sure we knew who was tenured and who wasn't because usually those who weren't made the better teachers at least for the basics. The more detailed classes were the ones where you wanted the experts."

Matt thought about that, "Ok, but is that something one works up toward?"

C.J. nodded, "You bet, being tenured not only secures your position, but usually comes with a much bigger salary."

Matt said, "So that probably explains the expedition. She needs to impress someone to get tenure. It might also explain the high ratings. There is a student evaluation site that ranks her in the top ten of faculty at LASU."

C.J. then asked, "So what are you thinking? Do you really think Gabrielle Aleman and Michelle Henderson are missing?"

Matt looked back up at Baby's screen with the copy of Henderson's curriculum vita, c.v. and clearly thinking things through slowly shook his head. "I don't know what to think. Walter told me he knew something was wrong because he could feel it." He then looked at C.J. and said, "I remember racing back to the beach house when we figured out the bomb scare at the building here was only to get me to leave you so Robert could attack you. I knew something bad had happened to you because I could feel it."

C.J. took his hand and rubbed it, "But I survived. I'm here with you and we're married and soon we're gonna start a family. I love you Matt."

Matt rubbed her hand back and then put his arms around her and brought her into his embrace and said, "I love you so much, C.J." When they broke their embrace he said, "I think we need to work with Baby and get all the information on Henderson and Aleman we can, including financials. If you could do that then I can head over to LASU and have a talk with anyone who might know where the expedition was supposed to take place. Hopefully its not too far away."

C.J. nodded and Matt put his hand to her cheek, brushing her hair back from it and kissed her softly on the lips and said, "I'll be back soon." Then he got up and left.

C.J. started clicking away and brought up the college I.D. pictures of both Henderson and Aleman and thought to herself, 'Maybe they're just too wrapped up in their research to think about calling home.'


	5. Chapter 5

5

Matt found the campus at LASU incredibly confusing. None of the buildings on the older campus seemed to be well marked and once he finally got inside the oldest of them all, it seemed like it was more of a maze. He finally decided to ask someone, what looked like a student walking by, where the history department was and they told him it was on the top floor.

He took the elevator up to the eighth floor and found an even more confusing layout. He asked a man in an office if he knew where to find the department office for history and he told him, "Go down to the right here, then go left down the second hallway, then go right and take the walkway bridge thing and then go left again. They have the corner office in the far southwest corner of the building."

Matt nodded and tried to follow the directions but bumped into a female student practically running and crying as he rounded the corner. He caught her arms in his hands and could see how upset she was so he asked, "Hey there, are you ok?"

She looked up at him and said, "No, no I'm not. My fiancee is missing and no one will tell me where he is. I don't understand why they can't tell me anything. Something's happened to him, I know. We're soul mates. I just know." She broke down crying and grabbed on to Matt who tried to comfort her, but he felt a little self conscious though. He had never met this girl before and to be honest, he wasn't really interested in holding any woman other than C.J. anymore, but at the same time, he knew what it was like to lose a fiancee, so his heart did kind of go out to her.

So he tried to calm her down while he broke this embrace by putting his hands back on her arms and pulling her back, "Ok, why don't we sit down and talk about this for a minute. My name's Matt Houston and I'm a private investigator. Maybe I can help."

She nodded and they found a couple of chairs and took those. Matt asked, "So what's your name?"

"Amy Dalton, my fiancee is Michael Tucker. He's a RA for Dr. Alexander Whitehead. He went out on a research trip last week and he hasn't called me. Not once. I know he would if he could so something terrible must have happened and no one in that stupid office will tell me anything." she said as she took out a tissue from her purse and held it in her hand.

Matt took out a business card and gave it to her, "Here's my card. I want you to call this number and talk to someone named Chris and tell her everything you just told me, ok? Tell her I told you to call. I'll see what I can do to find Michael."

She nodded, took the card and stared at him for just a second before saying, "Thank you, that's really nice of you. You seem like such a sweet man."

Matt rubbed her arms one more time and said, "Don't worry so much right now, just go home and take it easy ok?" As he started to get up, she did and put her arms around him again. This time Matt was really uncomfortable and he took her hands, squeezed them, smiled at her and then walked off after saying, "I'll contact you when I know something."

Matt finally found the office and found two administrative assistants when he walked in. He asked, "Is this the History Department office?"

Both looked up and one of them answered, "Yes it is. What can I do to help you?"

Matt answered, "Well, I need to talk to whoever is in charge. My name is Matt Houston and I'm a private investigator. I've been hired by the father of one of your graduate students to track her down."

Both of the older women chuckled and the one at the desk furthest away from Matt said, "Well, that's a new one. I've heard of parents trying to hunt down their undergraduates who tend to party more than study, but not our grad students. They tend to study more than party. In fact, I don't even have to ask who it is you're looking for, but you might want to start in the library. I could just see them so engrossed in their research that they forget what day it is."

The other lady spoke up, "You remember Martha? She got those microfilm rolls from that archive in India and only had 2 weeks to go through them. She stayed overnight in the library working through each of the 40 rolls every other night. That was her plan, she slept every other day. A lot of our students are like that."

Matt nodded, "Is Gabrielle Aleman like that?"

Both women seemed to tense up and one did nod her head. "Yes, Gaby is a sweet kid. She takes everything she does very seriously."

Matt noticed the change in the tone of her voice and they way they looked at each other, "Her father is very worried about her. He's convinced something bad has happened. If there is anything you ladies can tell me to put his mind at ease both of us would greatly appreciate it."

The two looked at each other and the older lady, the one furthest away stood up and said, "Come take a walk with me for a minute and I'll show you around the building."

Matt left with her and she introduced herself, "My name's Eleanor. I've been an admin for 18 years now. I'm almost to the point where I can retire and I can't jeopardize my pension and retirement," she said as she looked carefully around.

They stepped out onto a patio with tables and chairs but vacant. She continued, "Gaby is a really nice and talented girl. She only started here last fall in the program and she's already a RA for Michelle, I'm sorry Dr. Henderson. I know she beat out a couple of other grad students, but there is one grad student that, well, he's just a little off if you know what I mean."

Matt listened carefully and asked, "You mean he didn't handle losing the position to Gaby well."

She nodded, "Not only did he not handle it well but he went off the deep end. He was yelling at Dr. Henderson and Dr. Moorison, the department chair. We ended up having to call security and I know Dr. Moorison met with a couple of the other tenured faculty to discuss referring him to the counselors for a psychiatric evaluation."

Matt asked, "What happened? Did they do that?"

Eleanor looked around again, "No, I don't think they ever really did. See he comes from money and Dr. Morrison got a call the same day from his mom and everything sort of got dropped."

Matt asked, "Ok, so what is the department chair exactly?"

Eleanor answered, "Its a rotating position among the tenured faculty, its basically the person that represents the department for the university. They do all the class scheduling, they represent the faculty members and their interests to the dean and they handle virtually all student complaints. That's just for starters too, they have to do all the financial budget planning and hiring for the department. Its a big job."

Matt needed to know more, "So its sort of like the boss for the rest of the department."

Eleanor nodded her head, "Kind of. I'm not sure the tenured people feel that way about it, but the tenure track and non tenure track do."

Ok, Matt was confused, "What do you mean tenure track and non tenure track?"

She explained, "Well, tenured track are folks that are hired that have that have the opportunity to gain tenure. They have to publish so many books and articles and demonstrate they will be an asset to the department first. It can be really stressful to be in that position. The non tenure track are people with M.A.s or even that do not have that opportunity and are typically paid a much lower amount of money and teach mostly the entry, survey freshmen classes, your basics. Most years they teach 5 to 10 times the number of students and if they work the maximum teach almost 20 classes a year to make a lot less than what a full time, tenured faculty person makes teaching 4 classes a year."

Matt was surprised, "That's quite a difference. These non tenure track faculty are ok with that?"

Eleanor answered, "Well, I don't know if I would say they are ok with it, but they handle it well. Most of them, in my opinion teach because they are teachers at heart and all they want to do is inspire these kids. They don't really have a lot of options either. The history profession is incredibly competitive. Getting a tenured position is a lot like winning the lottery. I'll process 200 applications for one possible position whenever ones gets opened, and that's usually only once every 4-5 years or so. On the other side it, non tenure track people don't really have to worry about publishing, they are only here to teach. The university uses them a lot and in every department. The idea I think is that most freshmen aren't going for a history major and those that are will end up taking that tenured expert when they take the upper level courses the adjunct or non tenured people don't teach."

Matt nodded but still found it confusing. He figured that maybe C.J. could help him make sense of all this and help him determine if any of this factored into his case. He may not understand some of the office politics here in the academic setting but he did fully understand how an unstable graduate student could factor in. He also realized he just found a good source of information. So he asked one last question, "So how well are Dr. Henderson and Dr. Moorison liked?"

She answered, "Well, for the most part students like both of them. Dr. Moorison has done a pretty good job as chair, making only a few of the tenured people angry. With Michelle, she let her make the decision on the RA position, and officially stood by her decision. Whitney, I mean Dr. Moorison studies East Asia so I'm not sure academically they have much in common studying two different continents essentially. I will say that Dr. Moorison has been chair longer than she was supposed to be."

Matt asked, "What do you mean?"

She explained, "Well its supposed to be a 4 year position that was supposed to rotate to the next person, but she's been chair for five years now. The department voted her back in when no one else would run. They may be the boss, but like I said there is a lot to the job. It can be very stressful for anyone. Even though Whitney didn't make the decision against that student, she still got to listen to his tirade against her and women as professors in general. That can take a toll after a while."

They walked back toward the office as Eleanor gave Matt a slip of paper with all the faculty names and office information on it along with the disgruntled student's name, Rex Balmouth written in ink. "Dr. Moorison will be back tomorrow and you can ask her about the detailed nature of the expedition then. I don't have access to any of that information and couldn't tell you where they went." Matt nodded and then headed back to the car hoping C.J. would have more information.


	6. Chapter 6

6

C.J. sat in front of Baby and had read over the snippets on the articles Henderson had written and some student evaluations of her. She kept hoping to hear from Matt that Walter Aleman had heard from his daughter and that all was well, but it was looking less likely with each passing minute. See she had pulled up information on a Michael Tucker from an Amy Dalton that called about an hour ago and said Matt told her to call and give them the information. She had discovered that both Tucker and Gaby were in the same history program, were taking some of the same classes and both had RA positions. She thought to herself, 'This can't be a coincidence...two graduate students going missing at the same time?'

Clicking more buttons she finally got into the university's financial statements of record and found that Michelle was married. None of the other documents even hinted at her being married. None of the pictures revealed her wearing a ring and while she had dedicated her academic articles to mentors and the like, never was a husband mentioned. She plugged in Fred Henderson and found their address. She reached over and took the phone to call Matt in his car.

Matt was heading back when the phone went off and he answered it, "Houston" he said.

"Matt, listen I found out that Michelle Henderson is married. The husband's name is Fred Henderson and they live at 155 Westwood Drive in Westdale subdivision close to LASU. He is listed as an adjunct teacher II at LASU in the psychology department." C.J. told him.

Matt looked up and saw he had just passed the entrance so he told her, "Ok well surely he'll know where his wife is and maybe even be able to get her on the phone so I can tell Gaby to call her Dad." He said as he pulled over and then turned his car around and headed back.

C.J. said, "I sure hope we can resolve this case that quickly, I really do. It would be nice to wrap it up since you already got us another client."

Matt nodded and said, "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry to spring that one on you so fast, but I ran into her in the hallway at the university and she was awfully upset. I don't think its going to be that big a case. The guy's probably just out somewhere, where he can't get to a phone. She said he was out on some research trip with a Dr. Whitehead or something. Look, I'll look into it when I get back, just have Baby pull up anything on him or Ms. Dalton and we can go over it then."

C.J. answered, "Ok, well call me if you learn anything from Mr. Henderson. Be careful."

Matt replied, "Sure thing, see you in a bit." He pulled up to the house and got out to go inside. Once he reached the door, he went to knock but it creeped open. Matt instinctively drew his gun and called in, "Mr. Henderson? Are you here?" He didn't get a response so he cautiously moved in, "Mr. Henderson? My name's Matt Houston. I'm a private investigator." He heard something fall over the kitchen and started to move in that direction when a cat came out and met him at his feet. He didn't hear the person come up behind him with the gun. In fact he never heard anything before the bullet stuck him in the back.

C.J. felt something, a chest pain almost and suddenly a cloud of fear permeated her body. Something was wrong, very wrong. She reached out to call Matt on his phone and got no answer. She got up and took the address she had just written down and headed to the elevator. She told Chris she would be back soon and went down to her car. She drove right over and her heart sunk when she pulled up to see Matt's car surrounded by police cars and an ambulance.

The look on Hoyt's face told her this was bad and she went from walking at a brisk pace to running. He grabbed her arms and told her she couldn't go inside.

"Why, why Hoyt...why can't I go inside." She had tears starting to stream down her face as she feared the worst.

Hoyt tried to calm her down, "Houston's been shot, but he's still alive. The paramedics are inside working as hard as they can to keep him that way and we need to stay out of their way so they can do their job."

C.J. was starting to go into panic as she was clenching Hoyt's arms back. "No, no he has to be ok. Where...where was he shot? Tell me it wasn't point blank again." She was crying harder now.

The stretcher came out and she could see Matt with the oxygen mask on his face, the IV in his arm and all the blood. As much as Hoyt may have wanted to hold her there she broke free and ran to him.

She took his hand as they ran with him and said through the tears, "I love you Matt, I'm right here. I'm not leaving. I love you so much, you've got to hang on. Please."

They loaded him in the ambulance and let her climb in. She stayed with him, rubbing his hand in hers as she heard the paramedics working on Matt calling out his vitals and getting confirmation from the hospital on what medications to inject him with. She couldn't turn away from him, but kept staring at his face praying so hard that he would just open his eyes and tell all these guys to just slow down as he was going to be just fine. But that didn't happen. He didn't regain any form of consciousness. She kept kissing his hand and whispering to him how much she loved him and how he had to hang in there. She told him over and over "I can't lose you, please, please don't leave me."

One of the paramedics looked up from the radio and asked, "Are you his wife?" She nodded her head. He spoke into the radio, "I have the wife here and can get approval now."

The person at the other end of the line told him to do just that so he asked her, "Are there any allergies we need to know about?" She shook her head. "Do we have your permission to treat him to the fullest extent necessary."

She closed her eyes and tried so hard not to lose it completely before she said, "Please, do whatever you need to so he will live. I can't live without him. Please..." and then she completely broke down.

The paramedics called back and forth to each other and C.J. caught enough of the conversation to know that he was in critical condition, that he had been shot and that the bullet had entered his back and remained somewhere around his left lung. They began intubating him and she closed her eyes again and put her head down to his hand as she kissed it. It was already wet with her tears.

When they pulled into the hospital emergency entrance they forced her to leave him when they got to the double doors leading into the operating theater. She remembered Matt telling her about running beside her gurney when she was shot after Connie's death and now she stood exactly where he had that time. Her prayers were no less intense either and she didn't have Too Mean Malone there to sit with her. She closed her eyes and remembered she can't even call Bill this time. All of those memories from when he had been shot before and they told her he had died came back so fast that she just sunk to the floor outside those doors. She didn't even have the strength to get up and walk to the waiting room right away. After a couple of minutes she slowly got up with the help of a nice nurse who walked by and asked if she was ok, and went to that room. She sat in a chair with her knees drawn into her chest when Roy got there. He had rushed over at her call when she finally composed herself enough to call. He couldn't understand everything she said, but got the name of the hospital and that Matt was shot. The look on her face almost broke him down as well and he swallowed hard to compose himself to give her strength.


	7. Chapter 7

7

Hoyt walked back over to the man sitting on his front porch with his head in his hands. Matt had just been taken away by ambulance and he needed answers. "So..." Hoyt began, "you say you walked into your house here and found Mr. Houston on the floor face down in a pool of blood."

The man looked up and nodded. "I was out running errands and when I got back I noticed this car in front of my house and the door open. I don't know this Mr. Houston and I have no idea why he was in my house."

Hoyt told him to stay put and walked back over to his car. He knew he couldn't talk to either Matt or C.J., but Chris would probably know something. He just hoped someone had called her to tell her about Matt so he wouldn't have to. So he had the call patched through.

"Houston Investigations" Chris answered and she sounded more subdued than normal so Hoyt figured she knew.

"Chris, its Hoyt. Listen I'm at the home of Fred and Michelle Henderson and I am hoping you can tell me why Houston came over here and what case he is working right now."

Chris shared what she knew about the missing college graduate student, the research expedition she was supposed to be on and that Michelle Henderson was the teacher she was supposed to be with. She finished the conversation by saying, "They're trying to find her so I would think they went to see her husband to see if he knew where they went."

Hoyt nodded his head and finished the conversation with, "Well, when you get any information on Houston's condition, give me a call. Just call HQ and tell them to patch it through. I'll let dispatch know I'm waiting to hear from you."

He turned back and walked back up to Mr. Henderson. Matt's shooting and the break in at the Henderson house just made this official police business. He knew he would probably still have a hard time selling the missing girl's case to his superiors since she was well over 18 years old and there had been no evidence whatsoever of foul play, but there were two other felonies to investigate here. He also knew C.J. and knew that once Houston was out of the woods, she would probably try to handle the case herself. If he didn't...well, Hoyt didn't want to think about the all too real possibility that Matt might not make it.

He and Matt had taken a while to become friends but once they did, both would do whatever was necessary to help the other. For Matt that meant helping Hoyt by any means necessary find his daughter and for Hoyt that meant breaking some serious rules in allowing Matt to escape capture when wanted for murder and then traveling to help him prove his innocence later. Not that they didn't still argue or fail to see eye to eye over certain things though. Hoyt smiled as he thought about how Matt would try to be all overprotective of him, especially if it related to his ulcer and eating habits, but knew that Matt only acted that way towards people he cared about.

And that went double for when Matt looked out for C.J. and the feeling he knew was mutual. Hoyt had seen her once before thinking Matt had died on the operating table and the look on her face just 30 minutes ago. Quite frankly he never wanted to see that look on her face again, not in his lifetime.

So, Hoyt felt he had a new case so he started in with the questions. "Mr. Henderson, Matt Houston came to see you today to ask about your wife, Dr. Michelle Henderson. Do you know where she is?"

Fred Henderson looked up at him, "What? What did he want with my wife? I've heard about Mr. Houston and I know he's one of these wealthy playboys who's got a girl in every port sort of speak. What did he want with my Michelle?" He now seemed a little angry.

Hoyt looked at him closely and said, "He's working on a case. There's a girl missing. Hasn't spoken to her parents in days. They asked him to help find her. Her name's Gabrielle Aleman. Does the name ring a bell?"

Fred's eyes widened, "Yes, I know Gaby. She's Michelle's RA. They're out on a research expedition."

Hoyt nodded, "I know that much. Where are they is the key question here Mr. Henderson."

Fred hesitated and said, "Look Michelle is very protective of her research. I'm not sure I should say anything without talking to her first."

Hoyt was starting to lose his patience, "Well, can you call her? Now!"

Fred got up slowly and walked back inside. The forensics team was still working of photographing and documenting anything. Hoyt gave him a glove to put on before he picked up the phone to make the call. "Cindy, It's Fred. Can you patch me through to Michelle...thanks." After listening for a couple of minutes and not saying anything Fred said, "Are you sure Cindy? No one is answering? What about the emergency coast guard alert line?" Again he didn't say anything for a minute or two. "Ok, well I guess I'll try again later. Thank you." Then he put the phone down.

He turned back to Hoyt and said, "They aren't picking up."

Hoyt said, "Then you are just going to have to tell me where they are." Fred started to object but Hoyt interrupted and put his hand up and said, "I don't care if you think this is top secret information. I have a P.I. bleeding from a gunshot wound in your house and a missing 22 year old girl on top of the break in. Those trump any academic secrets you or your wife may have."

Fred reluctantly nodded and went back to the bedroom. He came out with a folded up piece of notebook paper with coordinates on it and said, "Here, they are on a boat diving for buried treasure."

Hoyt looked up shocked but Fred continued, "Michelle thinks she knows where a Spanish ship went down after a hurricane blew it too far north. They're just off the coast, not even 100 miles away from Long Beach."

Hoyt took the paper and went out to his car to call the coast guard. At least maybe this case would come to a speedy conclusion and the only thing C.J. would have to think about is Matt and his recovery.

C.J. sat in that chair, then paced in the hallway and then tried to choke down she didn't know how many cups of bad coffee Roy kept bringing her. She couldn't think of anything else but Matt. It was almost as though she really couldn't concentrate on anything. Her mind refused to allow her to imagine the doctor coming out and telling her they had done everything they could, but he was gone. Instead she kept thinking back to their days when they were young, their high school years, their college years, the first years of his business and the agency and finally the most wonderful last few months of her life as his wife. She closed her eyes as she tried to feel his arms around her again. How it felt just this morning to wake up to see him smiling looking down at her in the bed before convincing her to shower with him. He promised to keep his hands to himself, but neither really wanted that and they were actually getting started before they ever stepped in. They were practicing, or so he called it, for when they finally got the go ahead from a doctor that C.J. was in perfect condition to carry their first child.

C.J. sucked in her breath as that thought hit her again. She was on the verge of losing her husband and any child they could have created together. It could all come to an end with one word from the surgeon. It would all be over...everything...

Roy walked up and put his arms around her at exactly that moment. He had watched the emotions play out on her face and knew she was contemplating the worst so he simply said, "You know he's survived worse." Even in saying that Roy was not comfortable. How was he supposed to be with his nephew fighting to live just a couple of rooms away? He knew he had to be strong for C.J. though, she was like a daughter to him.

She nodded her head and said, "I know. I keep telling myself that, but I'm scared Uncle Roy, I'm so scared." She started crying again. He held her close and saw the surgeon approach. His demeanor didn't really give anything away, but they had to know. So he pulled out of their embrace and motioned to her to turn around. She did quickly and took a deep breath as she rushed over to him.

"He made it through surgery." he said and C.J. felt herself exhale. He continued, "The bullet just missed his kidney but nicked his left lung. It lodged right under his sternum. He's a very lucky man it missed his heart and his spine."

C.J. asked, "How serious was the damage to his lung?" She took a deep breath, afraid of his answer.

He nodded and took a deep breath himself, "Well, getting hit in the lung is never a good thing but it passed just below it in between it and his spine and somehow it lodged higher under the sternum than the point of entry so we are thinking it hit the rib cage first and then slightly ricocheted up. It had lost its momentum by that point. He's going to be in intensive care with respiration support, but we are taking him off a ventilator now. He won't be conscious for another 10 hours or so. I heard you two got married and was going to send something to my two best customers...". She smiled for just a minute as he tried to relieve just a little tension and then continued, "but I was hoping to see you under different circumstances.". He put his hand on her shoulder and said, "Try not to worry or panic when you see him. He's going to be fine. He's not getting out of here today but probably in a week we can discharge him. That's the plan. I will need you however to help keep him in line."

C.J. and Roy chuckled for a second and she disappeared behind the double doors that lead to the ICU.


	8. Chapter 8

8

C.J. stopped for just a second as the doctor lead her back into the ICU. She saw Matt's name on the door on a dry erase board with multiple notations about medications and restrictions. The doctor led her in and she gasped as he lay there, hooked up to all sorts of monitors and a tube running across his face under his nose.

The doctor pointed to it, "This is the oxygen support he's going to need for a couple of hours." She nodded her head, tears still forming but she was much more subdued at that point. "I wish I could tell you that you can stay all night, but both of you probably need to rest."

She took a deep breath and swallowed, "I'm fine, really. I just want to stay with him as long as possible." She walked over and took his hand.

"I'm sorry we don't have chairs in here, but there is a lot of equipment we have to move in and out quickly sometimes." He told her as he put his hand on her shoulder again. "Look, you can't stand by this bed all night. You need to eat something. We were in surgery for 8 straight hours as we very carefully removed the bullet and checked everything else out. Its 11pm now. When was the last time you ate anything?"

C.J. couldn't really think about that through, her eyes remained focused on Matt. She shook her head and simply said, "I don't remember."

The doctor told her she could only stay for about 10 minutes and then she needed to let her uncle out there take her home. She could come back in the morning when he started to wake. She absolutely refused, but he told her it wasn't optional. His pager went off and he had to leave in a hurry so C.J. stood their holding Matt's hand which she did all night.

Roy figured when she didn't come out after an hour, especially since it was now midnight, they were letting her stay with him and sleep in his room. He was hoping they would make her eat something. He never could convince her to eat anything while they waited for news on Matt. He made his way home worried about both.

Hoyt had given the coordinates to the coast guard but so far nothing. The boat wasn't there and there didn't seem to be any evidence that it was even in the general area. Mr. Henderson didn't seem that concerned either. However, given the attack on Matt, Hoyt was able to get a special request granted and they had agreed to widen the search this morning. He planned to stop by the hospital on his way and check on Matt and see how C.J. was handling everything. When he called last night they told him he came through surgery, the prognosis was good and he might be cleared by the doctor to give a statement later in the next afternoon or even the next day after that. Chris basically told him the same thing.

He went straight to the waiting room but only found Chris. She looked like she had just gotten there herself so he walked right up to her holding a cup of coffee. "Any word?" he asked.

She looked down at her coffee and answered, "Well Roy called last night to tell me Houston was put in the ICU and that C.J. was getting to stay with him, but I don't know who to talk to, to ask. So I've just been waiting, hoping I'll see C.J."

Hoyt nodded and gave Chris a hug. She tensed up a little bit for a second and then the two went to sit down. She still dealt with issues from being attacked just a month or so ago. He told her that he had gotten the information from Henderson as to where his wife was supposed to be with Gabrielle Aleman but so far no trace of either had been found. She then asked, "So who shot Houston and why?"

Hoyt sighed, "I don't know...yet. I plan to see Mr. Henderson again this morning and ask him if he has any idea either. I have a feeling he's keeping things from me."

At that point the surgeon came in. He had just gotten there and had decided to see C.J. and check on her before he headed back to review Matt's chart and check on his overnight progress. When he had called and checked in on him during the night the nurses reported that all their monitors were showing strong vital signs for him so they really hadn't gone in to check on him. He clearly recognized Hoyt and he and Chris got up and walked over to him. "Where's C.J.?" he asked.

Hoyt and Chris looked at each other confused and Hoyt spoke up, "We thought she was back there with Houston."

The doctor closed his eyes for a second as it dawned on him. She stayed overnight in that room or she just hadn't gotten there yet. Knowing C.J., he knew it was probably the former. So he told them he would go and check and sure enough C.J. stood exactly where he left her, standing beside Matt's bed. She looked a lot more exhausted than when he last saw her though.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

She wiped away a couple of remaining tears and looked over toward the door and said, "I'm sorry but I couldn't leave him." She turned and looked back at Matt's face, still peaceful if unresponsive.

He walked in and put his hand on her shoulder to turn her around and said, "I thought I told you 10 minutes last night."

Neither the doctor nor C.J. noticed that Matt was waking up. He blinked his eyes a couple of times as the fuzzy image before him cleared and he could make out and comprehend the conversation about C.J. and his condition.

"I'm just fine and I'm not leaving him. He was shot again and I thought I lost him there for a while, so I'm not going anywhere." She turned around too quickly to face Matt again and was so dizzy that she practically collapsed in the doctor's arms as he caught her. Seeing that Matt tried to get up despite the fact that he was still seriously injured not to mention drugged himself.

"C.J." he got out, "Honey what's wrong, are you ok?" he asked softly but urgently.

She blinked a couple of times as she tried to regain her sense of balance and it hit her that Matt was asking her a question so she leaned on the bed and grabbed for his hand again. "Matt, Matt I'm fine. You're awake, thank God." She kept blinking.

Seeing the look on her face and in her eyes...well, he never wanted to see her look like that, ever. She looked beyond exhausted, scared and relieved all at once. "C.J. what's going on? Where are we? What happened?" He asked as he stroked her hand with his thumb.

The doctor stepped up behind her and he answered, "You were shot Mr. Houston, in the back. We removed the bullet and you are going to be just fine. You will need to stay here and rest for a few days and then you will be able to go home. Right now you are in intensive care but we are moving you to a regular hospital room today." Then he looked at C.J. and told her, "You have to get out of here and go get something to eat and some rest yourself. You almost fainted just now and that's not surprising since I doubt you've eaten in 24 hours and you just stood, all night long, beside this bed for at least the last 9."

C.J. shook her head and Matt started to try to sit up again, "C.J. you stood up all night long?"

She rubbed his hand and tried to smile as she said, "It's not as bad as it sounds. I just couldn't leave you." She felt a couple of tears escape. "I'm fine really."

Matt took a deep breath as he looked at her. He wanted so bad to stand up, take her in his arms and carefully place her in that bed and make her get some sleep, but his body wasn't ready for that. So he knew he had to convince her with words and they were never his strong suit. "Honey listen to me. I have a feeling the doctor here wants me to obey all his orders and get all the rest he prescribes, right?"

She nodded and said, "And you are going to do just that, Mr. Houston." She took another deep breath.

Matt continued, "I promise to do everything he says on the condition that you go..." She was shaking her head, but he kept going, "get some food and you take a nap. I mean it Mz. Houston. I will do everything I'm supposed to as long as you do the same."

The doctor patted her shoulder and said, "That sounds like a reasonable compromise."

C.J. just kept looking at Matt who stared back into her eyes and pleaded with her, without words, to take care of herself.

She finally blinked and said, "You promise you are going to do everything he tells you and not plot an escape."

He lifted his other hand and took hers in both of his, bringing it up to his mouth where he kissed it and said, "I will do whatever he tells me to, but you have to go and take care of yourself. Honey, please. I love you."

She nodded and bent over to kiss him on the cheek as she whispered back, "I love you too." Then she turned to the doctor, "You're sure he's going to be fine now."

The doctor nodded, "Yes, he's recovering nicely. Now, you really do need to go get some rest, but I can't let you leave alone. You are in no condition to drive."

She started to argue until he said, "Lt. Hoyt and your secretary Chris are both in the waiting room. I'm sure one of them will give you a ride."

C.J. looked back at Matt who told her, "Please honey, go on and get something to eat and some rest ok? I'll do the same. I love you C.J. and I want you to be ok."

She relented and leaned over and kissed him again, telling him again that she loved him before she very reluctantly made her way back to the waiting room. She caught Chris and Hoyt up on Matt's condition and the fact that his doctor thought he could give her orders too. Both looked at each other and Chris offered, "I brought my car. Why don't we go back to the penthouse at least, if you don't want to go to the beach house."

Hoyt chimed in, "That sounds like a good idea, sound advice. I'll keep an eye on Houston and go over what I learned about your case."

C.J. closed her eyes, the case. She had forgotten all about it and wait...Matt was shot because of it. No, she couldn't leave. Hoyt could almost read her mind and told her, "I already have two plain clothes in the ICU hallway and will keep them outside his room until we catch the guy who did it. Now, you have to go and take care of yourself. Let Chris here take you home or to the penthouse, but go get some rest." He had only seen her like this the morning Carl died. Only this time she looked even more exhausted. She backed down though and left with Chris.


	9. Chapter 9

9

C.J. still didn't understand why everyone seemed so worried about her when it was Matt who was shot. She just shook her head as the previous day finally caught up to her. She collapsed pretty quickly after getting back to the office. Roy had stopped in to check on a couple of things before heading to the hospital and Chris filled him in on C.J., not only staying up at the hospital all night but actually standing by his bed. She also told him she had taken care of their cars, having both towed to the office parking lot.

Roy just nodded and walked in to the penthouse and found C.J. sleeping in front of Baby. She looked exhausted but peaceful. He thought he saw her move and mumble, so after getting some juice for both in case she woke up, he walked over.

In her mind, she was holding a small infant. It was the most beautiful baby she had ever laid eyes on. She didn't know if it were a boy or girl since the blanket was yellow and it was completely wrapped up, only the face peeked out.

She was in a hospital bed and she could hear people buzzing around her. There was one person missing though, Matt. Both her parents were there along with Bill, his wife and Matt's biological father and mother. She sat in the bed amazed at this impossible family reunion.

Then she looked down back at her baby and it was gone. She looked back up and everyone was gone. She was alone and the room went from a warm, cozy space with sweet nursery decor to a cold, stark, silver and white sterile room. She was standing now watching people work on someone, an adult.

She crept closer and tried to see around the doctors and nurses working frantically on this person and heard one say, "Its gotta stop, come on...nurse, more sponges...clamps...come on, we gotta get this bleeding to stop." Then a loud, steady beep that seemed to go on forever and sent everyone in the room into overdrive.

She finally got around to the person and saw it was Matt. The doctor finally said after trying the electric shock, "Its over...call it." C.J. screamed out in her sleep, "No!" Then she turned and saw herself back in that hospital room with Matt and that infant leaving with everyone that had been in there celebrating the birth of her child. She tried to reach out and touch him but he simply backed away and left. She looked around at the room, now completely alone and sunk down to the floor.

Roy woke her up, "C.J., C.J. wake up." he said as he shook her arms.

As she came to the nightmare receded. Roy looked down at her concerned and asked, "Are you ok? Seemed like you were having some kind of really bad dream."

She sat up and rubbed her face, "Yes I was, I'm fine now." Trying to compose herself she explained, "It was just everything that happened yesterday. Matt getting shot. I can't lose him uncle Roy. He means too much to me."

He had brought her over a glass of juice and handed it to her. "I know, he always has. He's going to be fine. I talked to the hospital today." He sat down beside her "They and Chris told me about that stunt you pulled."

C.J. drank the juice, still exhausted and said, "I know, I know. I was supposed to go home. But how exactly was I supposed to do that with my husband, Matt, lying in that hospital just having cheated death once again." She shook her head.

It hit her harder than she thought it would if it happened again. Him getting shot was an occupation hazard and she knew that. She had accepted that and had since they first started the agency. Now everything was different though. Since they married she worried more and she noticed that. She didn't want to be like Elizabeth that last woman in Matt's past before he realized his love for her. They almost married after he essentially promised to quit his job for her to give her the attention she told him she needed.

Now here C.J. sat, drinking juice pouring out her heart essentially to Uncle Roy. He didn't judge her, just put his arm around her and told her that everything she was feeling was normal and natural. That she was tired right now and needed more sleep and probably more than just juice in her stomach. He left her to lay back down again and she drifted off again. This time she was actually too tired to dream as she slept for 5 straight hours.

Hoyt had gone in and talked to Matt. Seeing the medical equipment caused him to take a step back for a moment. Matt saw him as he strolled in, hands in his pockets and a look of irritation on his face as he said, "You know, if I had a dollar for every time I had to come up to this stinking hospital to see you, I could retire."

Matt chuckled for a second and said, "Don't it hurts to laugh."

Hoyt smiled and said, "I sent C.J. home with Chris. She looks almost as bad as you."

Matt nodded and said, "Thank you. She stayed up here all night and needs about 10 hours or so of sleep." He shook his head. "She can't be pushing herself that hard."

Hoyt nodded, "I want to be there when you tell her that."

They both smiled and then Hoyt got serious. "Chris also filled me in on your case and its now official police business. You remember anything about the guy who put you in here?"

Matt answered, "No, just that the door was open and I called out to Fred Henderson. Did you get anything from him?"

Hoyt answered, "Yes and no, but nothing that has really helped us so far. Swears he just walked in and found you. He gave us coordinates for the boat his wife and Gabrielle Aleman were supposed to be on but the Coast Guard hasn't found them yet. No evidence of foul play or anything either."

Matt noticed something in Hoyt's voice so he then asked, "You think he's being honest with you?"

Hoyt shrugged, "I don't know. He didn't seem that upset when we told him we couldn't find anything and he was rather reluctant to share the information in the first place. I'll be stopping by his place again later this afternoon."

Matt winced as he tried to sit up more. Hoyt asked him, "You need me to call you a nurse or anything? I thought they said they were moving you down a couple of floors."

Matt nodded, "They are, they just have to find an empty one first. They said I'd be out by Friday, but I need to get back to work on the case."

Hoyt shook his head, "No, you don't. I've got it handled."

Matt shook his head, "Walter Aleman is my client. I told him I was working on it and would find out what happened to his only daughter."

Hoyt thought about that for a second. As much as he hated thinking this, the odds were against finding her alive. He dealt with the same issue just months ago. He softly told him, "You know that doesn't necessarily mean you'll find her alive, right? How long has she been missing now?"

Matt looked down. He knew what Hoyt was getting at. The chances of finding a missing person alive, after this much time was essentially nil. "I gave him my word that I would find out what happened."

Hoyt understood and said, "Well, until Friday it looks like you basically have desk duty. I'll keep you posted with what I find out, not only on the missing girl but who shot you. Just take care and get some rest." With that he left and Matt finally was moved to that other floor. The nurse came in and gave him something right away for the post operative pain and he went right back to sleep.


	10. Chapter 10

10

C.J. woke up much later than she had anticipated. Staying up the night before combined with the stress of worrying about Matt had taken its toll on her. She got up and grabbed a bite to eat after looking around in the little fridge behind the bar. She found her leftover deli sandwich from a day before when they were moving her stuff. Then she planned to head right over to the hospital, but the phone rang before she got in the elevator.

She debated with herself as to whether or not to actually take the call, but then decided it really could be something important so she answered.

Walter asked, "Is this Chris?"

C.J. answered, "No, its C.J. Parsons-Houston. Chris left already. She'll be back in the morning about..."

Walter interrupted, "Oh, Ms. Houston. I'm Walter Aleman and I spoke with Mr. Houston about my daughter and..."

C.J. interrupted here more or less to speed this up so he wouldn't have to explain to another person and so she could get to Matt. "I know, my husband and I have been working on the case, but so far we haven't found anything yet. When we do..."

He interrupted again, "They found her..." C.J. caught her breath, hoping he was about to tell her she was fine and just hadn't been able to call, but his sobs didn't sound like tears of joy. "We just got a call from a man who said he works for the Mexican government and her...body..." he broke down and C.J. just closed her eyes. This was what she had feared but had known was a definite possibility. "They said the boat was just floating off shore just north of their border. I guess...I guess there is nothing Mr. Houston can do for us now...I'm sorry." He hung up.

C.J. almost dropped the receiver. She put the phone back on the hook and got in the elevator. She broke down crying once the doors closed. Five hours of sleep and half a deli sandwich hadn't been enough and the stress, well...she didn't exactly know what to do now.

Should she tell Matt the case just took an ugly turn? He needed to focus on recovering from this wound, not out running around trying to track down a killer. What if whoever shot him came back? The elevator dinged and she stood up and got out. She walked past Barney the security guard who asked her if she was sure she was ok and she replied, "I'm fine, but thanks for asking."

Once she was in her car she got on the phone to Hoyt to see what he knew. She explained what Walter had told her and he seemed surprised.

Hoyt sighed, shaking his head as he sat down at his desk, "I was afraid this story wouldn't have a happy ending. Did he say which branch of the Mexican government actually discovered the boat?"

C.J. had backed up the car and started driving, "No, he didn't. I don't think its a good idea right now to try to ask him either. He sounded really broken when he talked to me, barely getting the information out. I didn't tell him about Matt getting shot either."

Hoyt nodded his head and moved around a couple of files on his desk and said, "Well I'll see what I can do to get information on what happened. First thing we need to know is the cause of death, whether or not they think it was an accident or not. Worst case scenario is we ask Mr. Aleman to let us take custody of the body to perform our own autopsy."

C.J. closed her eyes for a second and when she looked up realized she was about to run a red light. She dropped the phone and slammed on the brakes. Taking a deep breath she looked around and picked the phone back up to hear Hoyt, "C.J.? Are you ok? What happened?"

She took another deep breath, "Nothing, I just almost ran a light. I'm fine, really."

Hoyt asked, "Are you sure you should be driving? I could send a cruiser to you and they could give you a lift."

C.J. shook her head, "No, Hoyt I'm fine really. Its just the idea of asking Mr. Aleman something like that...I just think all this is already too much for him. Let me see if I can't get a hold of my friend in the Marshal's office and see if he can't pull a couple of strings for us."

Hoyt remembered back a few months ago to that case that almost cost C.J. her life, "You mean Marshal Parks or Parkside or..."

She finished it for him, "Parkdale, Seth Parkdale. We dated in college and after what happened a few months ago, he kinda owes me. I'll call him and see if he can't get us information on the boat and Gaby from the Mexican government. I'll let you know when I hear anything." The next issue she needed to address was Matt and how she felt he needed to focus on his recovery, not on this case. "Listen Hoyt, Matt is going to need a lot of time to recover from being shot."

Hoyt thought he knew where this was going...great, where are those antacids? He knew C.J. could be just as overprotective of Matt as he was of her, but she really, no both of them really needed to let the police handle this case now. What made her think that the shooter who targeted Matt wouldn't come after her too? The monkey wrench thrown into this was the fact that he knew how difficult it would be for him to get information from the police of another country. No, she had the contact he didn't and that gave her leverage for now.

"C.J., I know he is and I think you should be there making sure he stays out of trouble. You know you are the only one he will really listen to." He hoped that he could sway her by using her power over Matt as the primary reason she should stay off this case. But he needed to go further, "You know if anyone came after you on this case, he would jump right out of that hospital bed and check himself out early to go after them." That should seal it. It made it sound like if she was really worried about his recovery she would let the police handle everything. He actually smiled a little to himself as he waited for her response.

She took a deep breath, "I know how to handle Matt and I also know when he finds out the missing daughter was discovered dead, he's going to try to jump out of that bed anyway. I don't want him worrying about this case and I really don't like lying to him, but if I keep working on it while he thinks I'm resting, keeping my end of the bargain sort of, he will rest. Then hopefully, I can bring this case to some sort of conclusion by the time he gets released and he can focus on fully recovering."

Hoyt's smile quickly turned to a frown, "Listen C.J., this is now official police business. I appreciate your contacts in the federal office, but its still dangerous. You just stood by Matt's bedside all night long in the ICU. He doesn't want you joining him there." He said sounding just a little exasperated now.

C.J. came back with, "I don't plan to join him there Hoyt. But I know how to investigate a case and I can keep it going. We owe Mr. Aleman an explanation as to what happened to his only daughter. He feels like he lost everything and he was relying on us to help him not have to face a parent's worst nightmare." She relented a little and said, "Look, I'll tell him about them finding them, I just won't give all the details."

Hoyt closed his eyes for a second as he thought back to just over a year ago when he was facing that same nightmare. Cathy, his daughter, had gone missing and if it weren't for Matt and C.J...well...he had a sense of how Walter Aleman felt. He thought that maybe he should open up to C.J. here. That might finally convince her to back off for now.

"Look, C.J. I remember...I remember Cathy disappearing...the not knowing...the fear. If it weren't for you and Matt, I just don't know. This case is personal for me and I plan to do everything in my power to bring some kind of peace to this family especially since it happened so close. One hundred miles off the coast of Long Beach is almost in my jurisdiction and I am already appointing Det. Warren as lead behind me. C.J. if you go off and get yourself hurt, how do you think Houston is going to handle that, huh?"


	11. Chapter 11

11

She was pulling up to the hospital and thinking through Hoyt's last comment before she told him she got what he was saying and would back off for now. She didn't want to argue all night. It was already 5pm and she needed to get a hold of Seth before he took off for the day.

It didn't take long for his office to get him on the phone and after a couple of minutes of chitchat, she told him about the case and how the father had heard from the Mexican government about her body.

Seth had hedged before she reminded him of her helping on the Newman case. "Ok, I'll see what I can do. I have a contact in the Federales and will see if he can send me their own file on it. I'm not promising anything though...Your husband there gonna be alright?"

C.J. answered, "Yes, he should be. When I left this morning they said they were moving him out of the ICU to a regular room and should be out by Friday."

He asked, "So how is he going to keep working on the case from in the hospital?" He was met with silence and he knew what that meant. He started nodding his head and took a deep breath when he said, "You plan to keep working on it, don't you?"

She just rolled her eyes, Seth would probably just give her the same lecture she just got from Hoyt. "Look, Seth, I know what I'm doing. There may not even be that big a case here. It could have been an accident..." she started hoping to just cut him off quickly so she could get inside to Matt.

"Really, that's why your husband was shot, because there wasn't anything to this case?" he countered with.

She took another deep breath herself and said, "That could have been unrelated..." she knew that was weak.

"Uhuh, probably, because we all know how frequently we find coincidences in cases like these. C.J. why don't you let the police handle this and you focus on another case. Go find some husband cheating on his wife or something." Seth tried to reason with her.

Another case...oh my g...C.J. thought...the Dalton case and the other missing graduate student. What if this wasn't just an issue with Gabrielle Aleman, but there were some sick person out there killing students at LASU, a serial killer. Ok, wait a minute, she was getting ahead of herself here. All she knew was that Hoyt told her Aleman and Henderson were working just off the coast and this Michael Tucker was being reported missing by a girlfriend, or fiancee or something. Now there was probably a connection, but if she told Seth that, he would probably threaten to take over or hand it all over to some police body before she could do anything about it at all and even though they might be connected, that didn't mean the person would strike again. She might send the FBI or Marshals or whoever out on a wild goose chase and then they wouldn't take the agency seriously again.

So, she decided to tell him she would focus on another case, this would work and she wouldn't be lying to anyone. "Ok Seth, I'll tell you what. You get me that file so I can hand it over to Lt. Hoyt and I'll focus on the new case Houston picked up before he got shot. Deal?"

Seth found her relinquishing a little too easy this time. He never knew her to just give up like that so he asked, "You're sure, you aren't going to be pressing this investigation?"

She knew she had to do just a little acting here so she said, "Seth, I've been up all night worrying about Matt. I'm tired. I might try to fight you on this tomorrow, but I just can't right now. I need to get inside here and make sure he's still ok, I can't really think about anything else right now. Just send over what you find to the office so I can put it in our files and I'll check with Hoyt tomorrow to make sure he doesn't need anything else from me."

He figured she was exhausted so he left her with, "Ok, well I'll probably be able to have it sent over in the morning. You take care of yourself and call if you need anything. Watch your back too, if you see anything suspicious, let me know, ok?"

She agreed and clicked off the phone to head inside.

Hoyt decided to head back to Fred Henderson's house. He still hadn't been able to go by and ask him much, the only contact he had was when he called last night to tell him the Coast Guard hadn't found the boat. He had spent most of his morning and afternoon at the courthouse testifying in a theft case. His Det. Warren and himself got to spend the entire day looking at two losers trying to argue their way out of a 5 year prison term. After testifying the defense counsel requested the right to recall both and that meant neither could leave. It wasn't even as though either defendant had a chance of being found not guilty and Warren whispered at one point to Hoyt, "You know they are only doing this to ruin our day." Hoyt nodded and this really was ruining his day because he had a shooting case to investigate and didn't need to spend all day listening to this.

After hearing from C.J. and knowing the Mexican authorities had found the body of Gabrielle Aleman, he just knew Michelle Henderson was probably dead too. In fact, the husband should have been notified by now if Walter Aleman was and he told that man to contact him when or if he heard from her. So he headed in that direction.

He pulled up and went right up to the door. Before he could knock he heard something break inside and thought that perhaps the shooter had come back so he drew his gun and called out, "Mr. Henderson...This is Lt. Hoyt, LAPD. Open up." He then moved to the side when he heard footsteps approach the door and open it slowly. Fred Henderson carefully looked out with what looked like a dustpan full of broken glass.

Fred looked out at Hoyt and asked, "What's going on here? What are you doing with that gun?"

Hoyt sighed and put the gun away, "I thought I heard a struggle inside, Mr. Henderson. You remember a man was just shot in your house yesterday. May I come in?"

Fred opened the door further and let him in. Hoyt noticed right away that everything had been cleaned and as he walked through the living room, his trained eye took mental notes. When he looked down the hallway, he could see into the master bedroom. What struck him was the open suitcase on the bed.

Hoyt gestured toward the bedroom and asked, "Planning on going somewhere?"

Fred came back around the corner from the kitchen where he had gone to throw away the broken glass and said, "I have to go to Tijuana to claim my wife's remains thank you very much."

Hoyt noticed Fred seemed more irritated than grieving. So he said , "I am sorry for your loss. I thought we agreed that you were going to contact me if you heard anything."

Fred started walking back to the bedroom and kept packing as Hoyt followed him. "What was I supposed to say exactly. My wife's body was found with her RAs, slaughtered on their boat. The Mexican Federales are telling me..." His movements becoming more angry and sharp, "that they think pirates attacked them. That everything Michelle had found, and it appears she found something, is missing." Then he turned to Hoyt, "You know that find could have made us wealthy beyond belief?" He turned back to his bag, "Now I have to go claim her body and figure out where exactly I want her buried, instead of celebrating the biggest achievement of both our lives."

Hoyt then asked, "Well, if I didn't know any better I'd say you are mourning the loss of this big find more than the loss of your wife."

Fred stopped in his tracks and looked coldly at Hoyt and said, "How dare you? I loved my wife. Just because I'm not crying right now doesn't lessen that. It doesn't mean I'm not mourning."

Hoyt digested that and pushed further, "You said RAs, that sounds plural to me. I thought your wife only had one RA, Gabrielle Aleman."

Fred took a deep breath, "She only had one, but the colleague she was partnering with loaned her his. His name is...was Michael Tucker. I'm sure he's dead too. They didn't tell me, but I met him a couple of times. He actually came to see me about some crazy ex girlfriend of his a few months ago. He was definitely the alpha male type that would try to protect someone in trouble."

Hoyt nodded and then knew what he had to tell Mr. Henderson here and knew what kind of reaction he would get. Didn't matter though because it still had to be said, "Well, I understand you have to travel into Mexico to claim the body and I am sorry for your loss. However, I will need to talk to you again and I need to inform you that if you stay away for too long, we will be forced to issue a warrant for you. If the Mexican officials are claiming this is a homicide and it occurred just off our coast line, that puts it in US jurisdiction." He could see the anger in Henderson's eyes and kept going, "We are not accusing you of anything, its standard procedure. If you really want your wife's killer captured, you shouldn't have a problem talking to us." With that last warning Hoyt left.


	12. Chapter 12

12

Matt was sleeping when C.J. came into his new room. There was a chair in the corner she caught Roy sleeping in. It was a sight to behold, Matt snoring softly and Roy talking to Lucy in his sleep. She carefully closed the door behind her and sat her purse on the table before walking over to Matt. She passed by a mirror and got a good look at herself, "No wonder everyone keeps asking me if I'm ok. I look like hell."

"No you don't, in fact you are the most beautiful sight I've seen all day," she heard from her husband in that low sexy voice of his. Matt winced a little as he sat up to face her.

She put her hand on his chest and said, "Oh no you don't. Lay back down. You need your rest. You may be in a regular room, but you still need to stay put in the bed for the next few days I'm sure." He did lay back down and she bent over and kissed him softly on the lips before running her hand through his hair on his forehead, just checking herself for a fever subtly, at least she thought it was subtle.

"I'm not running a fever and I don't have an infection so you don't have to worry. Did you take a nap like we agreed to?" He asked.

She nodded her head and told him, "Yes I did and then I ate. Happy?"

He smiled and nodded, "I was serious C.J., you have to take care of yourself." He took her hand and rubbed in that way of his and it caused her to close her eyes for a second.

Roy almost shouted out in his sleep, "Lucy she was just a belly dancer I knew before..."

Matt and C.J. just looked at each other trying hard not to start laughing and wake him up.

C.J. said, "I wonder what he's dreaming about. I've never heard of him speak of a belly dancer before."

Matt answered, "He mentioned it once to me when we shared a rare bottle of wine. Took us forever to get it out of that file cabinet." He chuckled, "You know the one that only responds to you and Chris?"

She laughed to and then got dizzy and closed her eyes to hide it from Matt. He picked up on it though and then did sit up, "C.J. sit down, right here on the bed."

"Matt, I don't want to disconnect anything..." she started to say.

"Nonsense. Now sit down here right now." He patted the bed and she complied. "You didn't get as much rest or eat as much as you were supposed to did you?" He asked as he rubbed her arms, concern written all over his face.

She tried to smile and said, "I ate. I did. Maybe not that much..." Matt started shaking his head, "Matt, I wanted to get over here and see you. I slept for 5 straight hours."

He pulled her into his embrace and said, "Come here" in that low sexy voice. Then he rubbed her back which he could tell was knotted up and tense. He softly whispered to her, "That's not enough. Honey I love you, now just lay down beside me and let me keep an eye on you for a little while."

The way he rubbed her back was almost intoxicating. His strength may have been weakened by that bullet, but his hands firmly pulled her to a lying position next to him in the bed in his arms. Her head rested on his chest as his hands kept going up and down her back and arms. Everything caught up with her again and she quickly fell asleep. Matt kissed the top of her head after feeling her heart rate slow and her breathing fall into that sleeping rhythm he was so familiar with. The nurse would be in soon enough to take his vitals so he just laid his head back. He felt better now than he had all day with her in his arms, although he sincerely wished she wouldn't push herself so hard. How was he ever going to be able to convince her to slow down when she got pregnant, he wondered to himself. Maybe he should start strategizing now.

Hoyt came back in at about the time Roy woke up. Matt put his finger over his mouth in a gesture to both of them to keep it quiet as he looked back at his wife, brushing her hair back so he could see if she were still sleeping.

Hoyt nodded and walked over to the side of the bed Roy was on. Matt very carefully and slowly extracted himself from C.J. and rolled over to come to a sitting position. Roy went over to help but he waved his hand to brush him away. He then pulled the IV pole closer. It squeaked once and he looked back at C.J. before proceeding and then got up slowly and all three then stepped out of the room so they could talk.

Matt winced a couple of times and kept his hand at his abdomen walking slowly, using the other hand to push the pole and said, "I want her to sleep, she's exhausted still. So what did you find out from Fred Henderson?" Matt asked Hoyt, "Did he ever get a hold of his wife?"

Hoyt stopped and the other two stopped to look at him. "Houston, didn't C.J. tell you?"

Matt asked, "Tell me what? She practically passed out in front of me when she got here and I convinced her to lay down so we didn't really get a chance to talk. What is it?"

Hoyt sighed, He really didn't want to be the one to tell him and after the conversation he had with C.J., well...he knew she was going to be mad at him for a while, but he wasn't going to lie. "Houston, Mexican federal officers found the boat Henderson and Aleman were on. It was floating adrift just off their coastline, practically on the border. I'm sorry Houston, but there were no survivors on board."

Matt closed his eyes and started pumping his fist against the IV pole. "Does Walter Aleman know?"

Hoyt nodded, "Mexican government called him. He called you and got C.J. I've already talked to Fred Henderson and they informed him as well. He's headed down there now to claim the body. I'm sorry Houston, but you know the odds..."

Matt held up his hand, "I know Hoyt. I was just hoping for once we could beat the odds." He shook his head, "Do they have a cause of death?"

They started walking again and Hoyt answered, "Not exactly. The only thing Henderson was told was that it was a homicide. Said something about it being pirates." He started to chuckle for a second, "Ironic though, that's what she was researching, buried treasure."

Matt and Roy looked at each other and Roy asked, "Buried treasure?"

Hoyt nodded as they got to the end of the hallway, "Yea, some Spanish ship that got blown off course. They think the three actually found it too, there was evidence of that. In fact that may be why they were attacked. Everything was taken."

Matt stopped, "All three of them? Who else was there?"

Hoyt answered, "Another graduate student, Michael Tucker. No news yet from his family. Warren started working on that end of it today. Family is from Iowa. We'll be calling them in and asking them questions when they come to claim the body. I've been told by my superior that the exchanges should take place here in L.A."

Matt looked up and then sighed, "Michael Tucker...his fiancee is our other client, Amy Dalton." He shook his head, "Has she been notified?"

Hoyt took out his notebook and wrote the name down, "I doubt it. Mexican officials will only notify family members and unless his family called her, she probably doesn't know."

Matt took a deep breath and said, "I need to go tell her."

Both Hoyt and Roy shook their head and Roy spoke up, "Boy you aren't going anywhere for at least the next few days. C.J. is going to tie you to that bed if she even gets wind you are thinking about plotting an early exit."

Roy offered, "C.J. can notify her and I can get ahold of some old contacts from the company to find out about the so called pirates."

Matt relented and said, "Fine, but not tonight, and go with her Hoyt. This isn't going to be an easy notification." They had reached the room again where C.J. lay peacefully sleeping. Both Hoyt and Roy said to take care and left. Matt slowly and carefully made his way back in and slowly got into bed. He finally breathed a sigh of relief that he had been able to get out and back in without her ever knowing and closed his eyes.

Then he heard, "So where exactly did you go when you were supposed to be holding me in this bed?"


	13. Chapter 13

13

Matt took a deep breath as C.J. sat up and looked into his eyes. "I just went for a little walk that's all. Hoyt came by and Uncle Roy woke up and I didn't want to wake you. You needed your rest."

"I didn't just get shot." She came back with.

Matt nodded his head and then said, "No you didn't, but how long do you think you can go at this pace?"

She took a deep breath, "I am just fine Matt."

He looked at her with that sarcastic and skeptical look and said, "Really? In the last 12 hours I've seen you almost pass out, twice."

She sat up more on the bed, "And I've seen you fighting for your life, blood pouring out..." She started to cry no matter how hard she tried holding it all in.

He took her back in his arms, "I'm going to be ok, C.J. We've been here before, and I know you always push yourself harder when I'm laid up like this, but it just seems like its hitting you harder this time." He started stroking her back again.

She pulled back and said, "Maybe it is. I don't know, maybe its different now." She held up her hand, "Now I don't plan on asking you to retire or anything like that...I just...I love you."

He took her in his arms again, "I love you C.J. I tell you what, why don't you run down to the cafeteria and get yourself something to go and bring it back up here. I'll be getting my tray in a matter of minutes and we can have dinner together and we can talk about this. I know its not Marcel's or Tuscan Sunset, but the company should make up for whatever the cuisine lacks. I don't want you to worry so much." He said as he brushed back the hair off her face and tucked it behind her ear.

She nodded and kissed him softly before grabbing her purse, saying "I'll be right back" and went downstairs. She wandered around all the stands of cereal, the coolers of pre made sandwiches, and the hot trays of buffet style, do it yourself to go boxes before she bumped into a young woman ordering a hamburger.

"I'm sorry, please excuse me." C.J. said as she backed up quickly.

The woman turned around and said, "Just watch where you're going ok. My new boyfriend just got hurt yesterday and I've got to get this hamburger to him. He absolutely hates hospital food."

C.J. smiled a little back and said, "I know the type. Well, good luck to both of you." She moved on and found it difficult to concentrate, but knew Matt would get upset if she didn't come back with something substantial. So, she filled up a plate with what looked like meatballs in a gravy sauce and thick noodles along with a pre packaged salad. She grabbed a bottle of water and went to pay before heading back to Matt.

Matt poked at his food. When he got the tray he asked the nurse, "Is this a joke?" It looked like different colored blobs of something on a steel tray.

The nurse didn't seem to think what he said was funny so she left him with. "Don't get shot again and you won't have to eat it again."

Matt sarcastically smiled back at her and then grabbed the ice tea that came with it. At least he recognized that. Then his nose caught a whiff of something he truly enjoyed. Angus beef, cooked well done. C.J. was truly going to torture him by eating something that smelled so divine while he had to eat something that didn't have a smell to it at all, and that said something.

He was about to make a comment when a young lady walked into his room. It was Amy Dalton, the client. Matt instinctively pulled his robe around him when he saw her come in, completely confused as to why she was there and why she was holding a styrofoam to go box. He thought also in that split second that he had to give her bad news though. Maybe she heard he got shot and was just trying to be nice, but he found it more than a little odd.

"Ms. Dalton, right? What are you doing here? Are you looking for someone?" Matt asked.

She smiled and said, "Of course I am silly, I'm looking for you." She took his tray and moved it before sitting down hers with the hamburger. "I read that you were hurt and I know how much you hate hospital food, so I brought you this. Much better than that." She said as she pointed to his tray now sitting on the side table.

Matt was confused, "Ok, so you heard I got shot, and yes, that hamburger is I'm sure much better than what's on that tray, but what do you mean you know how much I hate hospital food?" He asked as he kept his eyes on that hamburger he was starting to drool over.

She sat down on the bed and leaned over to tell him, "Well I read all about you yesterday. I know you hate hospital food, you love horses and..." she ran her finger over his mouth and said, "you love women. Don't worry, I think you'll find I'm..."

C.J. walked in at that point and stopped cold. She had to blink a couple of times and took a deep breath. Matt wasn't exactly sure what to say right away, he was in a state of shock himself. He knew how it looked, and it wasn't good. His eyes sought C.J.'s for any sign of hurt, but all he could still see was exhaustion. So he pushed Amy further back from him and said, "C.J., this is Amy Dalton, she is the client I talked to the other day."

C.J. walked further into the room and put her boxes on top of Matt's hospital tray with the blobs of food and said, "Nice to meet you again, I think. We bumped into each other in the cafeteria."

Amy looked at her and asked, "Who are you?"

C.J. walked over a little cautiously as she saw the puzzled look on Matt's face and held out her hand as she said, "I'm C.J. Parsons-Houston, Matt's wife."

Amy didn't shake her hand, in fact the look on her face got quite cold, "Oh really. So why were you downstairs getting yourself something to eat, but making him eat that hospital garbage. Don't you know he doesn't like hospital food?"

Both C.J. and Matt were taken back a bit and Matt spoke up, "She doesn't have to explain anything here." He needed to tell her about Michael, and he knew that, but somehow he didn't think she would be all that broken up anymore. "Ms. Dalton, we found your fiancee..."

Amy looked back at Matt and smiled when she interrupted and said, "We don't have to worry about him anymore. Really. I was going to break up with him anyway."

Matt kept going, Amy now reminding him of Erin, the one night stand who went all psycho on him a couple of years ago. "Amy, Michael Tucker was found dead. He and Gabrielle Aleman and Dr. Henderson were all found on their boat today. I'm sorry for your loss."

She didn't appear to be grieving but she did appear surprised. "Really? Wow. We'll I guess you'll have to investigate and find out who did it." She leaned back over to try to put her hand on his face, but he grabbed it as she kept going and said, "And I guess that means we'll have to work together on this."

C.J. cleared her throat. She had heard about enough. Her fear wasn't that Matt was buying any of this, but that Amy also was beginning to remind her of Erin and she needed to protect Matt right now. So she said, "Well, when we get back to work on the case, we will let you know. In the meantime, visiting hours are over and only family are allowed to stay in the rooms so I guess this is goodnight."

Amy looked back at C.J. and slowly got up. As she walked past her she whispered, "I read all about him. It's gonna take a real woman to keep him happy and keep him interested. How old are you again?"


	14. Chapter 14

14

Wow, C.J. thought to herself. That was a little bold. She just shook her head as this blond fairly attractive, but slightly disturbed perhaps young woman just left her husband's hospital room. She looked over to Matt who just shook his head and motioned for her to come back over to him. "Look, C.J..." he started to say.

She cut him off by putting her hand up again and said, "You don't have to explain, Matt." She took the hamburger to go box away from his hospital bed table and said, "And you aren't eating this." She took it over to the other table where she placed it before taking both her box and his hospital issued dinner and brought it back to him. "Here ya go."

He patted the bed, "Only if you sit beside me."

She looked at him sideways and said, "I don't think we will both fit on this bed trying to eat our dinner." as she opened up his tray again. When she saw what was on it she made a face and said, "I'm so sorry." He smiled back at her and they chuckled for a second before she said, "I remember having to eat that so called food when I had my gall bladder removed and if I recall correctly, you grilled me a mean steak when I did get released. I'll have to return the favor now, huh."

Matt grabbed his wife by the waist and pulled her onto the bed and into his embrace as he gave her a nice slow, long, sensuous kiss. Once he released the physical hold he had on her mouth he said, "Don't forget about the rest of the needs I met that day."

She started to blush and they chuckled for a second before she extracted herself. No, she knew if she stayed in that position long enough they were bound to get into some serious trouble with the hospital staff. Despite the fact that he was recovering from being shot, she didn't trust him to keep his hands to himself for too long whenever she was in a bed with him.

So she did decide the broach the issue of the woman who left once they were almost finished eating. "So, Amy Dalton seems to like you."

Matt put down his fork, his heart wasn't really into eating the blobs anyway and that hamburger, although brought to him by someone that appeared unstable, still smelt delicious and he was starving. "C.J. I did not ask her to get in bed with me...wait a minute...that's not what I meant...I didn't tell her I was here and I'm not sure why she showed up today."

C.J. smiled a little and said, "I know why she showed up today. Matt, you're a kind man and you have always attracted women. Remember?"

Matt's face got serious and he took C.J.'s hand as she was about to get her water bottle. "I know that in the past I have, you're right. But C.J. you are the only woman I'm interested in. Period."

C.J. looked into his eyes and saw his commitment there. She never seriously doubted him and knew he needed to hear that now so she said, "I know Matt. I trust you with my life and my heart. I know you'd never do anything to jeopardize our life together. I know that."

Matt said still holding on to her hand, "You know I love you with my whole heart, all that I am. What did she say to you when she left?"

C.J. squeezed his hand back and then pulled it back to get that drink of water and then answered him, "Oh she just said something about knowing your history and knowing about you..." She then rolled her eyes and said, "Then she asked how old I was."

"Well, if I do run into her again I'll tell her your age." C.J. looked at him and her mouth hung open, not so much in anger but surprise and figured he was about to kid around with her so she asked.

"And what do you plan to tell her, if you don't mind my asking?" she shot back with.

Matt looked at her a bit amused and said, "Well, that all depends."

C.J. narrowed her eyes and asked, "Depends on what?"

Matt looked back over at the hamburger, "Well, if you let me eat that I'll say you are in your twenties. If you don't...I'll be honest.". He had a huge grin on his face.

C.J. took a pillow from the chair beside the bed and hit him on the head with it and said as they both laughed, "Well then I guess I'll have to be old."

Matt caught the pillow and told her, "You aren't old, in fact, you're perfect. Just perfect for me."

She smiled and leaned back over and kissed him again. Then he started to move the tray aside and she stopped him and put it on the other table. He patted for her to join him on the bed again and she said, "Only if you agree to sleep. You need your rest. The nurse should be in shortly with something to help you with that."

Matt kissed her again and said, "I don't need anything to help me sleep. All I need is you." She laid down beside him. After talking for a minute about the case and catching her up on how Tucker now fit into it C.J. started trying to put things together. The nurse did come back in and before she knew it, he was asleep. As much as she hated to leave him again, she felt like she needed to start working more on the case. At the very least, she needed to pull information on all their suspects. So she said goodnight to the two new plain clothes officers outside his room, he apparently still wasn't aware of and made her way out to the dark parking lot.

Almost as if her body was on auto pilot, she walked out to her car in the dimly lit lot. Her keys fell once she pulled them out of her purse and she had to bend over. The next thing she knew two bright headlights were speeding in her direction. She ran and ducked down between two parked cars. The car sped past her, then slammed on the brakes, turned around and slowly made its way back. Her body tingled on alert as she cautiously moved around the parked cars and climbed up and into the bed of a pick up on an adjoining aisle. After about ten minutes, and when a group of doctors were making their way out did the car speed off and out of the parking lot.

C.J. climbed out of the truck and went back inside for a moment, only long enough to tell the officers watching Matt what had happened.

One asked her, "Did you get a good look at the vehicle?"

She answered, "No, it was too dark. I can tell you it was a dark colored, late model sedan but I can't give you a make, model or license plate. Sorry. I'm more concerned that if the person who tried to run me down is the same person who shot Matt."

The two men nodded to each other and the other told her, "Don't worry. I've done hundreds of these security details. No one is getting past me."

She nodded and thanked them both before the first volunteered to walk her out, which she let him. This time there was no sign of any menacing car out to get her.

The rest of the week, C.J. spent alternating between the hospital and the penthouse. She had done a good job convincing everyone that she was getting all the rest she needed. Even Matt had no idea she was spending most of her days with him and her nights, at least until about 3 in the morning, at the office pulling together all the information on the case before falling asleep in front of Baby. No, she was conducting this investigation just fine on her own. It was all going just fine and he never suspected anything, at least until that last night before he was released that is.


	15. Chapter 15

15

Why didn't anyone think she could handle conducting the investigation? She thought that to herself more than once. When she was almost run down in the parking lot, she decided she needed to figure out exactly what was going on before Matt was released, so she kicked it into high gear.

Arriving that first night in front of Baby, she had all the information Matt had pulled together in the file, including what she added from the papers in his car after Chris had it towed back.

She pulled up information on each faculty member Henderson worked with. As a lawyer, she knew how this worked, you need MOM, method, opportunity, and motive. So after pouring through the faculty members the first night she found that only two people would have known the coordinates for the expedition. She just didn't buy that pirates attacked them. Since she still didn't have the file Seth promised, this really was the best place to start.

First of all she read their C.V.s, like a resume, it told her where each person went to school and got their degrees, how many publications they had and basically what their field was. There was only one direct link between Michelle Henderson and another faculty member, Dr. Alexander Whitehead. His field was apparently Early Modern Europe while hers was Imperialism in the Americas. They also appeared to have co authored a journal article.

She clicked buttons to pull up his picture and his financials. It appeared he didn't make as much money as a tenured professor as some of the others. She found the financial data for the department and found that people hired much more recently were earning 5-35,000 dollars more than he was. In fact it seemed that the newer the hire, the larger the salary.

Then there was Dr. Whitney Moorison. Her pay also seemed at the lower end of the spectrum, despite the fact that she was serving in this administrative capacity. Her field was East Asia and everything she read led her to believe that Henderson and Moorison were friends. Neither of their paths seemed to cross in their own personal schooling, but it seemed as though they attended conferences together. C.J. still didn't see any motive.

The only interesting thing was the fact that the department reported the research trip and that it appeared that Whitehead and Henderson were supposed to be on it together. 'Well, I guess he was lucky he just didn't happen to be there when they were attacked.' Other than that weak argument for the opportunity part of the equation, she didn't have much to go on.

Then she got to Rex Balmouth. This was the disgruntled graduate student with the potential mental issues. The one that got so upset when he didn't get Gaby's RA position. She found that he had been in and out of sanitariums, that he seemed to have a high intelligence level, but absolutely no social skills. There was also a reference to a case sealed because he was a minor at the time of the crime.

Her head accidentally dropped when she nodded off for a second and she clicked on a new department link. What came up was the special edition of the campus paper with the announcement of a memorial service for Dr. Michelle Henderson and her RAs. It was to be held the next morning, rather this morning just later at 11am. She looked at her watch, 2:38am. She got up, walked down into the gym where she now kept more clothes and found something appropriate to wear. She would go to this service after checking on Matt. She could tell him that she was going to go out and get a bite to eat to account for the time. That she was slowing down just like he said and he should be happy with that. Drifting off to sleep for all of 4 hours, that was her plan.

She got up when the alarm went off at 7am and went downstairs to change. The funeral was at 11 so she put on a dark brown business suit. Nothing would appear amiss to Matt because she wore that all the time.

She showered before Chris arrived, and then left to see Matt. She found him giving the nurses a hard time. They were telling him that the doctor had left strict orders for him to only take a 5-10 minute walk maybe and no further than the end of the hallway and definitely not to go and buy something from the cafeteria.

Matt came back with, "Oh come on, you can't possibly expect me to survive on that stuff you call food, do you? The eggs weren't even yellow!"

The nurse, Betty, shot back, "Its called an egg white omelet, Mr. Houston, and its good for you."

Matt nodded as she left the room and C.J. walked in. "Well, it doesn't sound to me like you are abiding by your half of our agreement." Her hands were on her hips as she calmly made her statement.

Matt reached out to her and said, "Come here and please tell me you brought me some real food."

She smiled and walked over and put her arms around him for a second and then said, "She's right you know, egg white omelets are good for you." Matt looked skeptical but she continued, "They just want to make sure your digestive system is functioning well and recovering from the shock of surgery."

He countered, "My digestive system is just fine. It can handle a lot more than a couple of egg yolks in a real omelet."

She smiled and said, "You know you are as bad as Hoyt." She sat down on the bed facing Matt.

Matt looked taken back a bit and asked, "How so?" He started to rub her arms.

A little chuckle escaped and she answered, "Well, if I had to bet, I'd say you probably don't just want a couple of egg yolks, but something more along the lines of a pepper filled, extra spicy omelet. I'm actually surprised you haven't called him and asked him to bring you a breakfast taco from that stand out in front of the police station he is always buying them from."

Matt made a face and confessed, "I actually did call him and apparently its ok for him to defy doctor's orders and eat them but not me."

C.J. laughed and Matt took that in for a second. His keen eye looked her over good and he noticed she still appeared weary, but perhaps more rested and that was good. Her laughter almost brought him a sense of relief. The rest of the morning she and Matt laid in the hospital bed watching some old Three Stooges reruns, took small, short walks in the hallway and made out just a little in that bed. She did have some difficulty reigning him in, but he would simply apologize and agree to try harder before breaking the rules within the next 10 minutes.

At one point he did ask her, "So why are you all dressed up? Surely you didn't put on the business suit just to spend time with me in this hospital."

C.J. thought for a second, and looked away as she answered, "Well, I may need to swing by the courthouse to offer a little advice to a fellow lawyer and I always want to look professional whenever I head in that direction."

Matt took a deep breath, "Are you planning on consulting on the case?"

C.J. knew she was lying and she hated that, but she didn't want him worrying about her while she kept the investigation going so she kept looking away as she answered, "No, not really. The case won't be coming up for trial for a while. I just need to look at a couple of things." Then she looked back at Matt who she could read in his eyes suspected something was up. "Your wife is in high demand you know."

She may have smiled at him when she said that but he knew something was going on here so he pressed a little, "So, you aren't investigating for them are you?"

C.J. smiled and simply said, "Now Matt, you know I wouldn't take a new case without you." She made sure she looked into his eyes the entire time.

Matt nodded, she didn't look away this time and he knew she wouldn't look him in the eye and lie so he decided to let it go and tightened his embrace around her shoulder as she laid beside him.

She looked at her watch later and said, "Oh my, I didn't realize it was 10:30 already. I need to be at there at 11." She kissed Matt softly on the cheek and said, "I won't be too long. Although after the meeting I was thinking of getting a big pasta dish at Tuscan Sunset. It will probably take me much longer to get back here...you know what, never mind, I'll just grab something downstairs..."

Matt was shaking his head and interrupted, "No, you go and get yourself a nice big lunch. I want you keep your end of the bargain. I'll be good and do what the doctor tells me, I promise. It makes me feel better knowing you are taking care of yourself, sleeping in a little, leaving a little early and taking time to eat well."

C.J. felt a little pang of guilt but tried to hide it with a smile. This was all for the best though. He didn't need to know about the investigation yet. "I'll be back soon. Don't give the nurses too much trouble ok?"

He nodded kissed her again, it took her a minute to get away but then she left. Outside in the parking lot and sedan watched her every move and followed her all the way to LASU.


	16. Chapter 16

16

C.J. also found the college campus confusing. However, there were lots of signs with directions on how to get to the memorial service. When she approached, she found Walter Aleman and he walked up to her, and shook her hand. "Ms. Houston, right? I saw you the other day when I met with your husband about...Gaby..." he started to get choked up.

It took all of her emotional strength to not start crying as well as she shook his hand back and said, "Yes, I remember seeing you. Both Matt and I are so incredibly sorry for your loss. Chris also sends her sympathies as well. I want you to know that we are still investigating. We want to find out who did this and we aren't giving up."

He tried to smile and then asked, "Will you sit with me? I know it may seem like an odd request, but my wife was just admitted again to the hospital. She's been ill and since Gaby went missing, she just stopped eating. None of the relatives from out of state have made it in yet. I would really appreciate not being alone."

She nodded and said, "Of course. Whatever I can do." Some university officials then walked up to both of them, Fred Henderson and the other dozen or so people congregating in this area of the lobby and motioned for them to come in as it was time.

The ceremony started with the president of the college expressing his deep regret for the tragedy, that he knew the deceased professor personally and mourned the loss of such bright and dedicated graduate students who, "are our future" he said as he ended his speech.

Then he turned the microphone over to another man up on the stage of the auditorium. This was apparently the college dean. He said more or less the same thing, but spent more time talking about how the department was strong, the strongest under him and they would survive and emerge and "continue to lead the way in historical scholarship. In fact..." he declared, "a scholarship has been created in their honor and the college will grant the first one next year."

Each time Gabrielle's name was mentioned C.J. could see Walter Aleman start to tear up. She could tell he was trying his best to hold in his emotions in public. Her hand reached for his a couple of times to squeeze it slightly in reassurance that he was not alone. Each time he looked over at her and nodded through the tears.

The final official speaker was Dr. Whitney Moorison. The dean introduced her and after being hugged on her way to the podium by both the president and the dean she began her speech. "I met Michelle 3 years ago when she joined our department." She tried to smile as she fought back tears, "We became fast friends." She took a deep breath, "Our fields couldn't have been more different, but we were never at a loss of things to talk about and discuss. She was a rising star in our department" she gestured over to the row C.J. was sitting on. "We will forever miss her presence here and that of our two finest graduate students, Mikey Tucker and Gaby Aleman. As chair, I got to know both of them personally and I would like to share a couple of things. Mikey was young, actually much younger than most of our graduate students, but it was because he was so smart. His enthusiasm for history and research in general was infectious. In fact, Michelle told me over and over how he inspired her in some ways, and I think he inspired all of those who knew him, including me. Gaby..." She looked right at Walter at that point and said, "Gaby was such a talented and sweet girl. Not only was she intelligent but she reminded us daily of how important family was as she shared her incredible experiences growing up in such a supportive home." Walter did break down at that point and C.J. lost her composure as well.

Moorison continued, "Michelle, well, I spoke of Mikey and Gaby first because I know that is what Michelle would have wanted. She always put others first. And Fred," she looked directly at the widower when she said, "she spoke of you often. We as a department can't begin to express to you how deeply we feel your loss and we want you to know that if there is anything we can ever do for you, please don't hesitate to ask. Even though you may be part of that psychology department down the hall, you will always be family to us." She broke down again and finished by saying a couple of other things about the department and some of the other faculty, especially Dr. Whitehead who she lead everyone to believe would feel the loss most keenly in the department and then sat down. The service was packed with students and some came up and offered brief memories of being in her class and how dedicated she was before the service ended an hour later.

C.J. got up and asked Walter if there was anything else he needed and he said no and that he had to get back to meet the family coming in at the airport. The president, dean and department chair all came over and shook his hand and expressed their condolences. Everything was winding down and C.J. noticed Fred start to head back to his car. She began walking over when she spotted Amy Dalton.

She approached him and grabbed his arm and began yelling, "You were the one weren't you." Fred looked confused and forced her to let go of him but she kept going, "You were the one that told Michael not to call me anymore or see me anymore. That was all you! It was all your fault!" Then she took a swing at him.

He grabbed her hand instead and caught it and said, "I don't know who...wait a minute...are you Amy?" he asked.

She shot him an irritated look and said, "Of course I'm Amy. I was Michael's fiancee, I was his whole life, just like he was mine. And you took that away didn't you. You took that away because you were jealous. You knew you didn't have with Michelle any more what Michael and I have so you tried to ruin us."

C.J. walked up and tried to intervene, "Amy, why don't you come over here with me and we can go get a cup of coffee or something." She gritted her teeth as what she had to say next, she really hated saying. Not only because it wasn't true, but because it unnerved her. However, this might make her back off and not start a fight with a grieving husband. She was still her client after all, "I know Matt wouldn't want you to do anything to get yourself in trouble."

There she said it and she thought Amy might actually be appreciative of it. Instead she spouted back with, "So I see you left him in that hospital huh...you don't seem to be very caring or all that concerned to me. I would think a real wife would never leave his side." She turned back to Fred and pointed at both of them and said, "You two are both pathetic." Then she left.

Fred looked at C.J. and said, "Thank you, I don't know who you are, but I appreciate what you did just now."

They both started walking back to his car and C.J. explained, "I'm C.J. Parsons-Houston..."

Fred stopped and then looked at her, "Your husband was shot in my home. How is he?"

She swallowed and answered, "He's ok, he'll be just fine, thanks for asking. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind getting a cup of coffee with me." He looked down for a second but she continued, "I know this is a difficult time for you, but really I'm not out to get you. I just want to try to figure out who would want to harm your wife and Gaby." She said softly.

He nodded and asked, "Do you like extra bold? There's a place around the corner that makes a pretty mean cup."

She agreed and the two walked over.


	17. Chapter 17

17

"So how did you and Michelle meet?" She asked as he handed her the cup and they sat down at a small table.

He blew on his cup and answered, "She came into a grad class I was taking on death and mourning and gave a guest lecture. Her field dealt with North and South America when Europe first started coming over and set up control. You see so many of the people who lived here died of smallpox and she showed us drawings that were made that depicted how Native peoples dealt with the loss and various different ways Europeans did too." He looked back at his cup, "She captivated me. Her lecture was more like listening to a story even with all the numbers, mortality rates and statistics." He smiled and then looked up at C.J., "I almost changed my major to history, just because of her."

C.J. looked back down at her cup and asked, "So, where did you take that class? Was it here?"

He nodded his head, "Yeah, I was what you would call a non traditional student. Meaning I came back to school after being out for years. I did some time in the military and then came back. I finished my M.A. a year ago and we married. She got me a job on campus as an adjunct in the psychology department and she worked right down the hall in the history department. We joked that we could see each other from our offices." Then he looked back down, "Sometimes that's not always a good thing though."

C.J. looked confused, "What do you mean?"

He took a sip, "Well, let's just say that can be too much of a good thing sometimes. After about a few months, I needed some alone time. Spending every waking minute with her, even though I did love her, just wasn't a good idea." He put the cup down and started gesturing a little with his hands, "You see every one of us needs to be able to see ourselves as separate human beings. We need to have that sense of identity." He smiled and then said, "I'm sorry I'm sounding like a psychology professor again, huh."

C.J. smiled and said, "That's ok, I'm interested, really I am."

He nodded and then continued, "Well, like I said, it got to be too much. We both needed some time apart, but we never really had the opportunity. We both had to work, pay the bills. I was jealous, I was, she had way more respect than I did. She was all 'tenure track' and I was just an adjunct. I had to hear all these professors talk down about me and every other non tenure track faculty member at the countless university functions she drug me to."

C.J. noticed the look on his face changed as she narrowed her eyes. He wasn't really looking at her anymore but off past her. He continued, "All those dinners, parties, and conferences...I hated going to them...making me feel like I wasn't good enough or something." He caught himself and then took another drink of coffee before looking back at her.

She changed her expression and took a drink herself and said, "Well, like I said I am sorry for your loss and I am sorry about that run in earlier. I don't know Ms. Dalton that well, but she seems to be fairly enamored with my husband and she is officially our client." She tried to smile.

Fred turned serious and then asked, "What do you mean?"

C.J. put her cup down and answered, "Well, she showed up at the hospital after only meeting with him once and convincing him to take her as a client." She shook her head, "It was odd. Apparently she had read a lot of the media articles on Matt and acted like she knew him so well. She actually told me she was his girlfriend. I guess she missed the wedding announcement, huh."

Fred looked around for a second and said, "Ms. Dalton suffers from a fixation disorder I think. I never really took an abnormal psych class, but Michael came to me a few weeks ago and asked for advice. He was taking a grad class with Michelle and Alex so he knew me and knew I was a psych prof. I told him to cut off all communication and just break it off, if she did anything more, I told him to report it to the college. She may need more help that he can provide."

C.J. looked down for a second and then shared a little him, "Sometimes that harder to do than say. I had a similar experience, yet different." Fred looked confused and she continued, "I had a boyfriend sort of. We never really dated, he just had the fixation thing down though and he ended up committing suicide toward the end of the semester."

Fred reached out for one of her hands on the table and said, "I'm so sorry. I think the problem is that the warning signs for these disorders are hard to see and that's if you want to see them. Many parents don't or are in denial. I will say this, be careful. Michael told me she was stalking him, following him around, leaving inappropriate notes for him, taking classes she didn't need just because he was a T.A. for them. I think he said she retook two intro level history courses because he was working for Alex, she didn't need them. He had asked her out a year ago and they only dated for a month." Then he let her hand go and took his coffee and drank it again.

C.J. added, "She told us they were engaged."

He laughed, "Engaged? Really? Only in her own mind and that's what I'm talking about. If she thinks she is your husband's girlfriend, even with the wedding announcement in front of her, she may still act to protect her delusion. She may see you as an obstacle."

C.J. then asked, "You don't think she's dangerous do you?" almost half joking.

Fred looked her in the eye and said, "Yes I do. She took a tire iron to Michael's car once. That's what sent him to my office. He made me swear not to tell anyone, but she definitely has a violent streak, just keep an eye out." He looked at his watch and said, "Look I'm sorry, but I've got to go. I need to catch a flight to Oregon to take Michelle back home and have her buried near her parent's place outside of Portland. They have a nice little cemetery there that dates back to the 1840s. Some of the people were British and some Americans. Its very historic and I think very fitting for Michelle. I'll be back in about 3 days so if you need anything else, just let me know."

He stood up and C.J. took another drink and was about to leave when she heard the commotion behind her.

"Look what you did you stupid bitch!" C.J. turned around to see a young man about to strike what looked like his girlfriend at the next table. She got up and caught his arm before he could backhand her and twisted it around his back. It wasn't anything she had time to plan to do, just more of a gut reaction.

As she held his arm back she asked him, "Now what exactly did she do to make you think you could hit her?" in a very stern voice.

He struggled for a minute but couldn't break free. He said, "Look she spilled hot coffee all over my leg, alright, and I've got every right to be upset."

She maintained her grip on him and said, "You don't have a right to hit her."

He stopped trying to fight her and asked, "Ok, fine. Can you let me go now?"

C.J. pulled the arm back just a little more and said, "Only if you agree to relax and keep your hands to yourself."

He nodded, "Fine, fine, whatever. Just let me go."

C.J. relented and did let him go. His girlfriend spoke up at that point, "Rex, really I'm sorry. I didn't ask her to do anything and I didn't mean to spill it."

He grabbed napkins and told her, "Just shut up alright." Then he turned to face C.J. and said, "You're a little aggressive for a woman aren't you?"

C.J. narrowed her eyes and asked, "Are you Rex Balmouth?"

He stopped for a second and then just slowed down as he asked, "Why? What's it to you?"

C.J. answered, "Nothing really. I just heard you are a fairly good history graduate student."

"I'm the best, top notch." He shot back.

She just nodded and said, "Really? Well I heard you were almost as good as Gabrielle Aleman, so you must not be too bad."

Rex threw down the napkins and got in her face, forcing her to back up a step or two, "That bitch only got that position because she was screwing someone. Isn't that how all you women get jobs that rightfully should go to a real man."

Oh, C.J. needed to control herself. She had heard this neanderthal garbage before. She knew she could drop him in a heartbeat too. The level of satisfaction from doing that would be almost delicious, putting his jerk in his place. She almost hoped he would try something so she could level him.

She took a deep breath, "Usually we women get those jobs because there isn't a man capable of handling it better than us."

He just snarled and said, "Maybe someone should explain to you your place in society."

She pushed further into him and said, "Maybe someone should teach you some manners."

At that point the manager, a rather large man stepped between the two and said, "Look, you two, I think one of you is going to have to leave."

C.J. turned back and took her purse and said, "I was already leaving." She looked at the girlfriend and said, "Take care of yourself." Then she left.


	18. Chapter 18

18

The sun beat down on C.J. as she drove back to the hospital. She had gained some valuable information by going to the memorial service. She still didn't see much in the way of motive yet, but it was still early.

She picked up the phone and called Chris, "Hey Chris, did we get any packages or files by currier today?" She was looking for that file from Seth.

"Yes we did. Its from the Marshal's office. I put it on your desk. How's Houston?" Chris asked.

C.J. checked her watch again, 3:05pm. "He's recovering nicely Chris, already driving the nurses crazy."

Chris chuckled on the other end of the line, "Are you stopping by here? Do you need me to bring the file to you?"

C.J. answered, "No, that's ok. I'll pick it up tonight when I stop by."

Chris didn't reply right away but asked, "Are you staying up here at night?"

C.J. thought for a second and answered, "I'm not staying up there too terribly late, but I do have some work to catch up on."

Chris asked, "Work? What work? Murray told me that while Houston is in the hospital he was going to rely on the legals downstairs and not send you anything."

C.J. bit her lip and then said, "Well, there are a couple of things I still wanted to check out on the Dalton case. Just trying to tie up all the loose ends and put the case to bed sort of speak. I just want to make sure that when Matt gets released, I have all the info he needs to finish conducting the investigation into Gaby's disappearance and death too. I don't want him working too hard when he gets out."

Chris seemed to understand that and said, "Well, like I said I left the package on your desk. If you need anything else, just let me know."

"Thanks and I'll talk to you later." Then C.J. hung up and noticed that the sedan behind her had been in her rearview mirror for several blocks. So she decided to call Hoyt.

"Yes, this is Lt. Hoyt." He said and he sounded pretty exhausted himself.

"Hoyt, its C.J. Did either of the undercover officers tell you what happened last night?" she asked.

He took a deep breath, "Why yes, yes they did. I also got back the forensics from the Henderson house after Houston's shooting." She closed her eyes when he said that but she focused on the rest of what he had to say. "No prints, looks professional. Lock was picked too. Since the house wasn't tossed..."

She interrupted then and said, "Hoyt I am interested in the report, really I am, but right now I think I have bigger problems." She kept looking in the mirror as she basically made a block and that stupid car was still behind her. "I've attracted a tail and I'm pretty sure its the same make and model from last night."

That got Hoyt's attention. He stretched out the phone cord and hit the window of his office to get the attention of a couple of officers walking by and motioned for them to come in. "Where are you?"

She looked at the next street sign and told him, "First and Medical Drive."

"What's your license plate and make and model?" He asked.

She told him, he wrote it down and instructed the officers to call it in. They were ordered to pull over the sedan following the car with the plate he gave them.

Within minutes, C.J. saw a cruiser pull in behind the sedan at a light and then turn its lights on. The sedan turned its wheels and sped past her car as it ran the light. The police gave chase and C.J. toyed with the idea of following behind, but decided to head to Matt. She was already gone for so long and Hoyt would surely give her all the details later. So, convinced the sedan would be stopped and the officers would take the person into custody, she kept driving. She was wrong, however as the car got away.

She bought a cup of coffee before heading up to Matt's room. Matt wasn't in the room though so she decided to wait on his bed. The coffee helped but she was still famished. Basically she hadn't really eaten all day, just drank coffee and it was catching up with her. She thought she would just lay back for a second while she waited for her husband to get back.

Matt walked slowly in the room after timing himself and walking for a solid 30 minutes. He was surprised to find her passed out asleep on the bed. Smiling he walked over and brushed the hair off her face and kissed her softly on the cheek. It didn't even cause her to stir. He looked at her closely and thought she looked a little pale. Her coffee to go cup was still on his table, steam coming from the lid. Now C.J. loved coffee and needed her cup every morning, but usually not this late in the day and not this big a cup. So he surmised as the investigator he was that despite drinking coffee, all day long it seemed, she was still so tired she was taking a nap.

He quietly made his way to the chair and sat down to read the paper. After an hour of reading and then taking another 30 minute walk he fell asleep in the chair.

C.J. woke up sometime around dinner, because a nurse came in with Matt's meal. She rubbed her eyes as the nurse looked puzzled. C.J. turned to see Matt sleeping in the chair. She got up and took the tray, assuring the nurse she would make sure he ate it all and then went over to the sink. She splashed water on her face and closed her eyes before rubbing her neck. Before she could open them she felt two strong hands on her shoulders.

"You ok?" her husband asked her.

She smiled, "Yes I'm fine, just a little tired that's all. I should be asking you that."

She turned and his arms went around her waist. He put his hands on the small of her back and pulled her to him as he kissed her. "You still look tired." His hands were rubbing her back noticing it was still tense.

She put her hands on his chest and reiterated, "I am just fine, really. Its just been a long day."

He looked confused, "Long day? I thought you slept in this morning, rested here with me the remainder of the morning and then had a short meeting before taking some time off to go have a nice long lunch. I came back in here just before 4 and you were asleep. I thought maybe you snuck a nap at the penthouse too. You know, taking it easy like we agreed. But I have a feeling I was wrong."

She took a deep breath and decided to come clean on part of her day. "Matt they had a memorial service for Henderson and Gaby."

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a second, "And you went for the both of us."

She nodded and looked down. He took his hand and softly placed it under her chin, tilting it up toward him as he kissed her softly on the lips and said as he stroked her cheek afterward, "Come lay down with me."


	19. Chapter 19

19

C.J. and Matt laid on that bed for the next few hours. She rested comfortably in his arms as he stroked her hair, her cheek, her arms and her back. She told him about the service and how everyone at the university seemed so supportive of Walter and Fred Henderson. How she held his hand during the service and how worried she still was about him with his wife in the hospital and him going through this alone.

He kissed her forehead at one point and said, "You are an amazing woman, C.J."

She smiled and said, "Superwoman maybe?"

He smiled back and then positioned himself on the bed so he could look in her eyes and said, "You are strong honey, but you aren't superwoman. I love you and I don't want to worry about you trying to do everything yourself. I appreciate what you did today and I am glad you laid down with me here and let me take care of you for a little while."

"Matt, I should be taking care of you, you were the one that was shot." she said.

He put his finger on her mouth and said, "These doctors and nurses are taking care of me just fine, but you don't have anyone taking care of you. I worry about you." He then took her face in his hands again and delivered another slow, intense kiss.

When he finally released her she said, "You have nothing to worry about, Matt. I love you and I plan on being around for a really long time." He smiled and the nurse came in with more pain meds. Matt drifted off and C.J. extracted herself again and headed in to the office.

Driving into the parking lot, she made sure there were no dark late model sedans anywhere. She got up to the penthouse, went downstairs, changed into sweats and then took the package from her office over to Baby. She turned Baby on and then got up and went to start more coffee before getting to work. Then she heard the elevator ding.

She was still behind the counter when she saw Amy Dalton walk right into the penthouse, cautiously. "May I help you?" C.J. asked.

Amy looked at her startled, "I just came by to see...ah...well, if I owed Matt anything, you know for taking me as a client."

It clearly appeared she was lying and appeared to be taking mental notes of everything in the office. C.J. came from around the bar and told her, "If you owe us anything, we will send you a bill. So, take care." she said as she gestured out to the elevator again. C.J. thought to herself, 'She's clearly not getting the hint here.'

Amy walked further in and asked, "So this is where he works, huh?" Still checking things out. She then turned to C.J. and asked, "What is it that you do for him exactly?"

C.J. answered, "Well, in addition to being _his wife_," she felt the need to emphasize that right about now, "I handle all of the legal issues. I'm a Harvard Law graduate."

Amy seemed to digest that, "So you don't really work with him as an investigator, huh...well, then what were you doing with Fred Henderson? I saw you two in that coffee shop and you looked really chummy. Almost like you were out on a date. Are you sure you weren't thinking of stepping out on him?"

C.J.'s mouth hung open, "How dare you!" She started to make her way over to this little tramp but Amy picked up a little glass globe C.J. picked up on one of their many business trips and threw it at her. She ducked and it shattered behind her.

"You don't deserve him, you don't appreciate him. I can make him happy, not you!" Amy screamed.

So C.J. moved cautiously back toward Chris' desk and called down, "Hey Barney can I see you for a minute. I need your help with something. Thanks."

She didn't even wait for Barney to respond but kept her eyes on Amy as she just paced around the penthouse in an agitated manner.

Barney came right up, "What do you need Ms. Parsons-Houston?" He saw that she didn't turn to face him but was focused on the woman walking around the penthouse. "She told me she was a client."

C.J. nodded, "Technically she is, but I think she thinks she means more to Matt than that." She turned to him and added, "Be gentle, but help her out, please. In fact depending on how she responds, we might actually want to call Hoyt."

Barney nodded and walked right up to her, "Ok, young lady, its time to go."

Amy looked at him puzzled, "Go? Where do you think I'm going? Don't you know I am Matt Houston's girlfriend. What do you think he's going to do when he finds out you tried to throw me out of his office?" She asked as she put her hands on her hips.

He radioed down for another security guard to help him and then took her by the arm and said, "This is private property and I have not heard from Mr. Houston anything regarding you."

She shook free and started picking up the chairs by that table by the hot tub and started throwing them.

It took two other security guards from the other floors to come help drag her out kicking and screaming from the penthouse. C.J. called Hoyt who sent over an ambulance and officers to help control the situation. She would be treated and have a psychological evaluation performed before being released as the police termed this a 'psychotic outburst from an individual'.

After all that, she and Hoyt looked at the information in the package together at the couch since a couple of the chairs at the table ended up in the hot tub after Amy's tirade. "Well, I've seen worse photos, but not much worse." He said as he handed her his half of the photos and took her half.

The photos showed Michelle Henderson's body with her throat cut lying in an open closet. Close to her were the bodies of Gabrielle Aleman and Michael Tucker, both dead from multiple gunshot wounds. Both were shot in the torso, but Gabrielle had a serious, and very visible head wound as well.

C.J. closed her eyes and had to take a breath for a second when she saw it.

Hoyt picked up on her distress and asked, "You ok? These are pretty graphic."

She kept her eyes closed but nodded, "Yes, I'm fine. I just can't image….being a parent and seeing your child like this." She fought to hold back the tears as her heart went out to Walter.

Hoyt sighed, "I know. But we are going to find out who did this, arrest them, send them away if not to death row, and bring some peace to the family."

C.J. sighed, "There isn't much of a nuclear family left though. It doesn't look like the mother is going to make it and Walter….well…I hope he didn't actually see Gaby like this."

Hoyt looked down, "I remember thinking I was going to have to see Cathy like this. It about killed me…..just the thought. I hope Mr. Aleman has some friends at least around him to help him through this."

Something in one of the photos caught C.J.'s eye. It was a plate laying in a clear solution in a rectangular plastic tub. She narrowed her eyes and got a better look before she recognized it. "Hoyt, that's a Ming Dynasty plate, if I'm not mistaken."

"Let me take a look at that." He said as he took the picture. He squinted his eyes and saw the image in the background and then asked, "How do you know that's Chinese?"

C.J. answered, "My friend from college, Connie Ling, you remember her right?"

Hoyt nodded and thought back to her murder investigation. C.J. continued, "She was a far east expert who brought back items like this from Hong Kong. I remember she loved the blue and white Ming dynasty porcelain. She wrote a couple of papers on it that I proofread for her. She would always include pictures in her essays."

Hoyt looked confused, "I thought Michelle Henderson was working on Spanish and American history. Why would she have a Chinese plate?"

C.J. shook her head, "I don't know. But I do know that is definitely Ming dynasty, and its incredibly valuable."

Hoyt nodded, "Maybe we have our motive."

"Maybe" C.J. said softly as she studied the photo before looking back at the three with the victims spread out on the coffee table that hid Baby.


	20. Chapter 20

20

The Ming Dynasty artifact put a whole new twist on the investigation, now that there could be a financial motive. C.J. still wasn't quite clear on what Henderson was doing with a Chinese artifact while writing and researching Spain and the Americas. She figured the best course of action, one that would kill two birds with one stone sort of speak, was to ask Dr. Alexander Whitehead.

Whitehead had attended the memorial service, but no one, at least not her, Matt or Hoyt had talked to him yet. She debated whether or not to take the photo with her and then decided against it. She would just do a little fishing for information with him and see what develops.

The first order of business after waking up from sleeping for the last 4 hours was to go see Matt. She wanted to see him and check on his progress. They had been told by the doctor that they could plan for him to be released the next day to, what the doctor called 'light duty'. She knew he would want to pick up where he left off and her work would help him do that.

Matt lay peacefully sleeping when he felt the bed sink to the side and someone take his arm and wrap it around what he could tell was a slender, hour glass shaped waist. He smiled, keeping his eyes closed and said, "So, does this mean what I think it does?"

Amy Dalton answered him, "It means whatever you want it to mean," in a low voice as she started to try to kiss Matt.

That wasn't the voice he was expecting to hear and it took him a second to take her arms and push her off of him. About the time he did, C.J. walked it. All she saw was the end of the kiss as Matt tried to stop it.

C.J. took a deep breath as said walked right over taking Amy by the shoulder telling her, "I thought I made it clear last night that you were not welcome. Now you need to go back to your own room, on the 4th floor is it? And leave my husband and I alone."

Matt knew the 4th floor was the psychiatric ward and looked at C.J. puzzled and asked, "Last night?"

Amy pushed C.J. back and Matt took her arms again when she said, "Yes, last night. All I was trying to do was get a good look at where you work and she called these goons to throw me out." She tried to make tears form as she looked back at Matt and said, "It was so embarrassing and it hurt me so much. How could you let her do that to me? She's trying to keep us apart."

Matt was trying to keep up here so he asked, "Keep us apart? Amy, I don't know exactly what you think is going on here, but I'm married to C.J. and I love her, only her. There is no us."

Amy looked back at C.J. and asked, "Oh really….well…" she turned back to Matt and said, "I didn't want to tell you this exactly, but I caught her with another man yesterday."

C.J.'s mouth dropped open and Matt looked even more confused as he looked at Amy and then C.J. who replied, "You saw me talking to a man who had just lost his wife in a horrible, horrible tragedy. Nothing more."

Amy snarled at C.J., "Really? And that's why you were holding hands drinking coffee together, because you were trying to comfort him?"

C.J. then answered, "I don't have to explain anything to you. Now I believe you have a padded room waiting for you on the 4th floor. I would hate to have to call some orderlies in to help you find it again, but I will if you don't leave now."

Amy turned back to Matt and said, "You see? You see what she is trying to do and how she treats me? I know she is supposed to be your best friend or something, but she doesn't love you. Not like I do."

Matt pushed her back even further and said, "She's not just my best friend anymore, she's my wife and no you don't love me. You think you love me and there's a difference. Now you owe her an apology and then you need to leave and go back to your own hospital room and get the treatment you need."

Amy's eyes turned cold and as she walked past C.J. she said in a whisper, "I should have sped up faster and gotten you out of his hair once and for all."

C.J. was stunned but tried to hide it from Matt. He caught that she said something that upset her, well in addition to everything else that had come out of her mouth, so he asked, "What did she just say to you?".

She put her purse down on the table and walked over to Matt, sitting on the edge of his bed and told him, "Nothing that important." She put her hands on his face, gave him a soft kiss and asked, "How are you feeling this morning? Better?"

He ran his hand through her hair and answered, "Yes, much better now that you are here." Then he looked in her eyes when he told her, "She wasn't here that long and I thought she was you."

C.J. nodded but still felt the need to ask, "So how long was she in here? I'm worried she's delusional."

Matt then asked, "Not long. So, who was this 'other man' she was talking about?"

He didn't really come across as jealous or anything, and he wasn't, but C.J. knew she was going to have to give him a name and knew that when she did, he would know what she had been doing. So she took a deep breath and answered, "Fred Henderson. I talked to him and got a cup of coffee after the memorial service yesterday."

Matt looked frustrated, "Fred Henderson? The widower to Michelle Henderson. Why were you talking to him C.J.? Were you investigating the case that got me shot and in this hospital?"

Ok, she needed to do damage control here. "Matt, I talked to him and asked him first how he met Michelle and got him to open up about things like that. He just lost his wife and I had just sat through one person after another talk about these young people who just had their lives ripped away from them and left the people I was sitting with trying to cope with living without them. It wasn't exactly the easiest thing I've ever sat through either."

Matt said, "Come here," and pulled her into his embrace. "I know that had to have been hard. I'm sorry you're having to deal with this alone too."

She pulled back, "I'm not alone. I have you, even if you are in this hospital. Although I will say, I miss sleeping with you next to me in bed at night."

He smiled just a little and said, "You know, we probably could sneak you in here. I promise I won't take all the blankets..."

She smiled and looked up at him. Putting her hands on his face she said, "As much as I would love to sleep in your arms, I think its best that we obey doctor's orders and you get one more day and night of rest. When we get home..."she said as she traced his mouth with her finger, "then we can spend the entire day wrapped up in each others arms."

"Sounds good to me" he said as he pulled her back so her head could rest on his chest and he could rub her arms with his free hand. The laid there relaxing for a few hours and when his lunch came, she excused herself to go buy something. "Matt..." she said as she got her purse, "are you sure you don't mind me going out to get something? I could be a while."

Matt looked at her closely and said, "As long as you are taking care of yourself, I don't mind at all. Now if you were going to do something else, like investigating a case you know is dangerous..." C.J. stopped cold for a second and was glad she wasn't facing him when he said that, "then I would have a problem with it."

She plastered on a smile and turned around to say, "You don't have anything to worry about Matt. I know how to take care of myself."

His eyes looked at her probing for any hint of vulnerability, an indication she would reveal something hidden from him. He said, "I know you can, but I don't want you investigating anything alone. Especially the Aleman case. We don't even know how they died, but we do know I was shot because of it." He looked determined.

C.J. looked down and walked back over to Matt and told him, "Yes we do know how they died." Matt looked puzzled again so she continued after taking a deep breath. "Henderson's throat was slit and Aleman and Tucker were gunned down. The Federales didn't find any prints and they think pirates attacked them, but Hoyt thinks it was a professional hit man or hit men."

Matt digested that and then took his wife's hand, "All the more reason for you to stay out of this investigation altogether and let me handle it when I get out of this place. Agreed?"

She took a deep breath and said, "Look, what if I just do background. You've never had a problem with me running background information before on Baby. You say you worry about me? Well I worry about you and you are the one currently in this hospital trying to recover from being shot, Matt...Just trust me."

Her eyes pleaded with him as well and he squeezed her hand and said, "I don't know. Maybe, as long as it keeps you in the penthouse and you double up security." She leaned over and kissed him one more time.

"By the time you get out tomorrow afternoon, I'll have a file for you, ok?" She asked.

He looked her up and down and said, "Fine, but nothing more, ok?" She nodded and then left, heading to LASU to conduct just one little interview before confining herself to Baby.


	21. Chapter 21

21

She knocked on the door to the impressive corner office. The gold plate on the door read, _Dr. Alexander Whitehead, Ph.D Associate Professor_.

"Come in..." a male voice called out. She opened the door and saw an older man she assumed to be Dr. Whitehead talking to two young women. He looked at her and said, "If you could just give me a minute." Then he turned back and said to the two students, "Look ladies, its not that difficult to understand. The social impact of the cottage industry and rudimentary manufacturing in Europe involved a change in the structure of family, societal ideas about marriage, and shifting consumption rates from the urban to rural areas. I do not understand why you are having such trouble grasping such simple concepts. I have an idea though, why don't you try actually reading the book and not passing notes during my lecture. Now go think about that for a while."

Both the students looked at each other and walked past C.J. She heard one of them say under her breath, "What a pompous..."

Whitehead looked at her and said, "Look, I don't give extra credit, I'm not giving out make up exams, and I don't really care if you need an A, B,C,D, whatever in this class. I don't get paid more to pass people." He put a file down on his cluttered desk and said, "And if you can't grasp basic concepts you probably don't need to be here."

She walked in and said, "Oh no, I understand. The putting out system, or cottage industry as you called it, brought about those changes because entrepreneurs wanted to undercut the guilds who were fixing prices and wages." That got his attention and he stopped to listen as she proceeded, "The people out in the countryside who would take those pieces of raw materials and manufacture them suddenly found themselves with an independent way to earn some extra income, which in turn meant that young people thought about leaving the nuclear family earlier, starting their own families and with that sense of independence, sought out love and compatibility in a marriage, and were also able to purchase more goods, or rather, consume them. This all worked well until enclosure started, but that was in the Netherlands first and then England."

He was impressed and told her so, "Most of my students barely understand the words I use, let alone the concepts behind them. I take it you've already taken this course and passed it."

She sat down and said, "Yes I did, a long time ago in fact. But I'm not here to ask you about European history. I need to talk to you about Michelle Henderson and the expedition you two were supposed to be on."

Whitehead nodded and said, "You from a newspaper?"

She shook her head and said, "No, I work for a private investigator hired by Walter Aleman to find Gaby. Of course he hired us before she her body was found..." At that point he stopped suddenly and swallowed but she kept going, "I was just hoping you may have some information that might help us find out who hurt the both of them."

She thought she saw a tear in his eye for a second and it looked like he was taking a minute to compose himself. "Chely and I were close. I should have been out there with her, but I had to come back and pick up the reviews from my manuscript. It took 3 months to get feedback from the 3 historians reviewing my book and I had to rewrite and clarify two whole chapters." He ran his hand through his hair and then got up and pretended to be arranging books on his bookshelf, but C.J. knew he was crying.

"So you two were close?" C.J. asked softly.

He just nodded. "Yes, but that doesn't matter now does it."

She got up and looked at a picture of Michelle and Whitehead smiling with his arm around her, both in their academic regalia. "You loved her didn't you?" she asked.

He turned back startled and then shut the door before walking over and taking the picture. He asked, "How did you know?"

She answered, "You two look like two people in love."

He replied coldly and said, "Well she was married. She deserved better. I told her that. She needed someone who could stimulate her intellectually. I know I'm older but we connected on a higher level. Anyway he was always around, every time she moved, he was there. She needed a break. We only had an affair for a month, then it was over." He put the picture face down on the desk.

She pressed, "And you accepted that?"

He didn't like where she was going so he answered rather angrily, "Of course I did. What choice did I have?"

"Well, I'm just asking that's all." She decided to soften her approach, "Can you tell me more about her research? I know a little about Spanish history and American history, but I was told that somehow she was researching the Ming Dynasty." She didn't want to tell him about the one artifact that appeared to have been left behind, but hopefully he could fill her in on why Michelle had a Ming Dynasty artifact.

He looked surprised and then explained, "Chely's dissertation and most of her work focused on the role the Americas played in Spanish imperialism. She emphasized trade over religion and the exploitation of the indigenous Native populations. Publishing another book would all but assure her tenure. The maritime trade she focused on involved the Spanish trips to the Philippines and trade with the Chinese there. She hoped to argue that the Pacific trade between Acapulco and Manila was historically more significant than has been discussed in the past. The Ming were in control of China in the 1500s to 1644 and she thought she found the site of a shipwreck. That ship has been rumored to have carried over a 100,000 pieces of fine porcelain and over a ton of Chinese tea. The tea of course would be ruined by now, but the porcelain...well...it would be worth a fortune, if you sold it."

C.J. asked, "I take it, that's not what Chely planned to do with it."

He shook his head, "No, no respectable historian would do that. Those goods belong in a museum not on some elite individual's mantle."

She knew what she needed to ask and knew he wasn't going to like it, but she asked anyway, "How many people knew the coordinates to the expedition? If you don't mind."

He got her point and didn't like it one bit but answered, "Only myself and Whitney. And by the way, for the last two weeks I have been in Canada." He shoved around folders and things on his desk and then found the one he apparently wanted and waved it in front of her and said, "I have all the receipts right here. I can't concentrate here so I took two weeks of sick leave to finish the manuscript to resubmit. I'll have Eleanor make you a copy. Just give me a minute." He left and took the file, but came back with another envelope and handed it to her. Then she left. After going through everything, it all checked out, he had an airtight alibi.

C.J. got back to the penthouse and found Roy,Chris and Murray waiting for her, arms folded.

"What?" she asked cautiously as she walked out of the elevator.

Roy spoke up, "Matlock called each one of us this morning and told us what you were up to. Told us to keep an eye on you, young lady."

Ok, C.J. was irritated, "Keep an eye on me?" she said louder than she intended but not really sorry she did either.

Murray nervously spoke up and said, "Don't think of it as us babysitting you..." oh the look he got from her then told him he chose the wrong words, but he kept going, "think of it as us trying to help you do that background work...on Baby...you know, like we used to do."

C.J. folded her own arms and said, "I don't need any help."

Chris spoke up and tried to bridge not just the emotional gap but the physical gap as she walked over and rubbed C.J.'s shoulder and said, "Look, we won't get in your way. All we want to do is help. We don't like that Houston got shot either."

C.J. softened at Chris and said, "I don't mind if you want to help, that's fine. But no one is going to tell me what I can and can't do. Do we understand each other?"

They all nodded, although Roy took a little longer to nod that the rest. He said under his breath to Murray, "Matlock's not gonna like this."

Murray whispered back, "I know, but at least we'll know what she's doing and where she's going." They nodded at each other as C.J. sat down and brought Baby up.


	22. Chapter 22

22

C.J. quickly found all the help to be quite useful. She shared all she had learned so far with Chris who organized everything into a color coordinated file. At the same time she had given Murray and Uncle Roy instructions to look up financial records for Dalton, Balmouth, Whitehead and Moorison, the personal info, not just salary.

They all came together later that afternoon on the couch in front of Baby. Roy spoke up, "Well, we pulled all the financial info and discovered that Whitehead spent a lot of money in Canada over the last two weeks, but no big amounts. The Moorison account was more interesting."

Murray then interrupted, "It looks like she withdrew $20,000 out of an account with only $25,000 in it. There has to be something to this, I mean, this is the account she has her paychecks deposited into and pays her bills. Why would someone take out so much like that?"

C.J. and Roy thought about it but C.J. spoke up, "Maybe she was saving to buy something big for her house, or a vacation."

Roy then looked back at the crime scene photos and said, "Or she could have paid someone to do this. I've seen hits like this before. Back in the company we kept a list of hit men we were supposed to keep an eye on. You know, the type that might be sent out to take out a dignitary or two. Usually the method of killing meant something, tells you something. This tells me they killed the Dr. first and then the other two. They slit her throat to keep her quiet. Since Gaby is closer to the stairs than Michael, and since both were shot I would say Gaby came out first, screamed and got Michael out too. That way they could kill them and not have to chase them down. This doesn't look like the work of pirates to me and according to my contact there aren't any active this far north anyway."

C.J. swallowed hard and then nodded. She asked, "Is there any indication she was spending the money on something specific?"

Murray looked back at the printout and then pushed his glasses up when he said, "No, it was a cash withdraw. Not made out to anyone specific."

She shook her head, stood up. It took her a second to catch her breath as she felt faint for a second and put her hand on her forehead. Roy stood up beside her and took her elbow and asked, "Are you ok?"

She nodded her head and said, "Yes, I am, I'm fine. I'm just a little tired still, that's all."

He asked, "Did you ever eat lunch?"

She shook her head and said, "I just haven't had time." He gave her a look and she said, "Look, I promise to pick something up on my way to Matt. Then we can eat dinner together, ok?"

Roy nodded his head and said, "Ok, just be careful. If that was a professional hit, they might start watching you. Keep you guard up."

She nodded and then headed to Matt. She had a few words for him too. Why exactly did he need to get a hold of Roy, Chris and Murray and assign them like babysitters. She didn't need any babysitters and by the time she left, he was certainly going to know that.

Matt sat trying to choke down what the hospital brought him to eat. He kept thinking about C.J. and was too worried about her to eat, even if he did recognize the food. Days after he was shot now, she still looked exhausted. He had caught on to what she was doing and he didn't like it one bit. Here he sat, in a hospital bed recovering from a gunshot wound to the back for crying out loud and she was taking it upon herself to investigate the same damn case alone. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. If anything ever happened to her...no, he did the best thing he could think of to reign her in from the hospital. He told Uncle Roy, Chris and Murray to keep an eye on her. The only reason he hadn't told Hoyt was because he wasn't in the office today. Apparently he got called down to the courthouse for some theft case.

C.J. sat in the car after she pulled into a spot in the hospital parking lot. She needed to calm down before she went in. The thing is, as much as she hated to admit it, Roy, Chris and Murray helped. It made everything go faster with all of them working on it. She sighed and went in to face Matt who she just knew was going to lecture her and she was in no mood. If anything, they should be feel safer with her there, not the other way around. She ran her hand through her hair. She knew Matt was really going to hate what she had planned tonight, but there was really only one person left for her to look into. Tomorrow she would have enough information for Matt to comb through and then finish the investigation. She was doing all this for him, why couldn't he just see that and trust her?

She peeked into the room and saw her husband, looking as handsome and sexy as ever. His strong arms looked so welcoming and part of her just wanted to rush in and jump in that bed with him. However, she needed to set a few things straight first.

He looked up and saw her. Her dark hair framing her face and falling on her shoulders, still tired though. He held his hands out and said, "Come here."

C.J. walked slowly in, dropping her purse in a chair and sat down on the bed. She let Matt take her in his arms, but kept thinking about what she needed to do and how she was going to address all these issues with Matt. Being in his arms felt so good though that she lost her focus. She exhaled and relaxed in his embrace for a moment. They didn't need to speak right away as both had so much on their minds, but both loved the other so much, that they wanted to just take each other in before getting into a heavy conversation.

Matt spoke up first, "I love you, C.J. You know that everything I do, I do because I love you."

She sat back and put her hands on his chest and said, "I know, but you know I do what I do because I love you, Matt."

He nodded and then added, "So how mad are you at me for calling in the cavalry?"

She smiled for a second and then took a deep breath, "Matt, I know you did that to try to protect me and watch out for me. I get it, I do. But listen, all I've done is gather information for the case. I haven't done anything that put me at risk."

Matt took a deep breath and said, "This case is dangerous C.J. What if the person that shot me came after you?" His eyes were full of concern and his arms remained firmly around her waist now.

She looked down and then back up at him and said, "I haven't seen any evidence of that, yet. In fact the only person I've had to worry about is Ms. Dalton."

Matt looked her in the eye and said with all seriousness, "You don't have anything to worry about with her. I'm not interested C.J., I told you..."

She interrupted, "That's not what I meant. I know you would never be unfaithful."

He looked puzzled and then finally got it, "What did she do that night, in the penthouse?"

She answered, "Nothing much, she just broke that globe I bought on that business trip we kept by Baby. No , that wasn't the worst of it..." she decided to tell him what she had hid for a couple of days now since she knew it was unrelated to the case, sort of, "she tried to run me down in her car that first night you were put in a regular room."

Matt felt his hand clench and he sat up straighter in the bed, "She did what?" His voice probably louder than he intended.

C.J. tried to reassure him that she was fine and that it wasn't anything to worry about right now as she was safely locked up, upstairs. "I'm fine Matt and she is upstairs getting the mental help she needs."

He rubbed her arms and asked, "You sure you're alright?" He closed his eyes for a second and said, "Why didn't you tell me when it happened?"

She smiled, "Ah, because you were out like a light. The nurse gave you pain meds, you wouldn't have been able to do anything. I reported it to the police but didn't know exactly who it was until she told me she wished she hadn't missed."

Matt closed his eyes again as he tried to push out the image that just flashed across his brain at the thought of her being hit by a car. He took a deep breath and said, "C.J., I hate being stuck in here. Why don't we check me out early and go home tonight and..."

She was shaking her head though, "No, you are going to stay right here and listen to that doctor and do exactly what he says. Its only for one more night. Tomorrow we go home, ok? Being shot in the back is serious Matt."

He rubbed her arms and said, "Ok, fine. I'll stay in here. If you will go home and get a good night's sleep, agreed?"

She kissed him on the mouth to silence him and then said, "I have a better idea right now though. Visiting hours don't end for another 3 hours. How about I lay down beside you and we watch some bad tv."

He nodded and she got in bed with him and laid down. She had been working so hard that she just hadn't realized how much she missed being in bed with him in his arms. She also knew she would need be to alert and on her toes when she broke into Dr. Moorison's office at LASU. Ok, she was well aware of the fact that was she planned to do was not only illegal, but also dangerous, but she figured that Moorison wouldn't give her a straight answer about the withdrawn money.


	23. Chapter 23

23

Matt passed out not long after getting another pain reliever shot. He had tried to protest, but C.J.'s big brown eyes convinced him otherwise and he acquiesced. She slowly extracted herself from his embrace. Carefully, this time she made her way out to the car and drove to the college. She put on gloves, put a little pouch with supplies around her waist and quietly made her way up to the top floor. Moorison's office wasn't going to be easy to get into. Roy had taught her a few things and Matt had shown her a few as well. In fact she found it funny as the two were basically competing to impress her with their breaking and entering skills, all the while thinking she would never use them about 3 weeks ago.

Once she got into the reception area of the office she broke into Moorison's private office. Her little flashlight was big enough for her to get a good look around. Luckily there were no windows. She checked out the bookshelves. They were full of history books of course, all on China or Japan or just East Asia in general. A few on the top and on the little coffee table on display sort of, were on Chinese art and porcelain. C.J. recognized an enlarged image of a Ming vase on the cover. She picked it up and found penciled notations around some of the pictures along with dollar amounts followed by question marks. She was so engrossed in what she was seeing before her that she didn't hear the footsteps behind her. She never even got to turn around before she was hit over the head by a heavy object and passed out cold.

C.J. started to come to in a small, dark, space. It was moving, she was moving. After a couple of seconds she figured out that she was in the trunk of a car. She couldn't hear much but it came to a stop, the door opened, someone stepped out, and then she felt the car moving much slower. It kept moving but the footsteps stopped. The she heard something else, like a swoosh sound and felt something cold beneath her. It was water. She started to breathing heavy and panicking as she realized what was going on.

Figuring the person who did this would not still be in the car she started pushing against the back seat. More water was coming in and it took all her mental energy to focus, she had to get that back seat down so she could break a window and get out. She had no idea where she was...was she being pushed into a lake? the ocean? a river? Focus, C.J., just focus, she kept telling herself.

Finally with a strong kick she got the seat to buckle. Water was coming in faster and the trunk was half filled. She pushed it all the way out and then crawled over the seat, taking the tire iron with her. She took one last deep breath before hitting the driver's window from the back seat and then swimming out. Lights shown down into the water and told her that it wasn't that deep. Before coming up for air, she swam as far as she could to her right. Then she came up. No one remained on shore so she swam and laid down on the muddy bank. After about 10 minutes she started walking along the road until she got to a bar.

The smoke and smell practically knocked her out as she slowly went in. It was much more crowded than the last bar she walked into for help. She had to wade through people trying to dance and drink, but finally made it to the bar and asked for a phone. She called Seth who promptly came over and picked her up.

"That's some look you have going there." he said sarcastically as he drove up.

She opened the car door and got in and said, "Thanks, I must look like a million dollars right now." Her hand found a wound on the back of her head and she winced as she touched it.

Seth noticed, "You want to talk about it? Do I really want to know as a member of law enforcement?" he asked as he drove.

"Why don't we wait until we get back to the penthouse and then I'll tell you everything." She did just that after she had gone downstairs, showered and changed into sweats.

He took a look at her head as they sat in front of Baby and told her, "We probably should get that checked out and get you a shot or two so it doesn't get infected."

She winced again and told him, "Maybe later, right now I think its fine."

He asked, "You warm enough?"

She nodded and answered, "Yes I am now, I took a hot shower. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced Dr. Moorison is most connected to what happened to Henderson, Gaby and Tucker."

Seth told her, "Look, C.J. someone tried to kill you tonight. I'm going to call it in. I can make it a federal case with the involvement of the Mexican government and police. I'll explain what happened to your husband..."

C.J. stood up and stopped him, "Matt doesn't need to know about this right now. There's no point in trying to tell him anyway, they gave him pain medication that knocked him out. And I'm fine so its not a big deal."

She started to walk away but Seth got up and grabbed her arm and said, "It is a big deal. You mean a lot to me, and I'm not going to sit back and act like nothing happened tonight." Then he took her in his arms, just giving her a hug the way he used to when they ceased being in a relationship.

When she pulled back she told him, "I'm sorry, I don't mean to downplay what happened tonight and I do plan to be more careful. If Matt finds out he could put himself in a more dangerous position and he's trying to recover from being shot."

Seth thought about that and said, "It will hurt him worse if anything happens to you. How do you think he would have handled you going missing tomorrow then us finding your body in the trunk of a car in that lake?"

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a second. Then she said, "I know, really I do." She rubbed his arms and said, "Look why don't you go home to that wife of yours. I'll stay up here and sleep on the couch, I am exhausted and don't really want to drive. I'll get all this organized for Matt to look at tomorrow when he gets out of the hospital. I really can't thank you enough for helping me tonight. I guess I owe you one now."

Seth looked at her with a skeptical eye and said, "I'll only leave if you double up the security downstairs and call in a couple of extra muscle to come up to the penthouse every hour or so. You can pay me back by staying out of danger." He gave her a little kiss on the cheek and said, "But you know you can always call me."

She nodded her head and he left. C.J. sat back down and ran her hands through her hair as she took Chris' file and added her own notations to it. Once she had it looking the way she thought it should, she laid down and fell asleep. It was only 2am.

Chris woke C.J. up as she stood over her, "C.J…..C.J…..Good morning." She said softly.

C.J. opened her eyes and sat up before she said, "Chris, what time is it?"

Chris looked at her and said, "Its 10am. I didn't know if you wanted up early and you looked so peaceful…well when Houston called earlier I told him you were here sleeping and he told me not to wake you until 10 or so."

C.J. looked at her watch. It was already 10? Had she really slept in that much? Oh no, she thought to herself, I have so much to do and Matt gets out today….ugh. She closed her eyes and said to Chris, "Thank you for that, I do appreciate it. I guess I was more tired than I thought."

Chris smiled and said, "I'll go get you some coffee." She walked over to the bar and C.J. still sat on the couch and looked back over the file she worked on for Matt.

"Chris, can you put it in that throw away cup? I probably need to head over to the hospital to pick Matt up and take him home." She asked.

Chris answered, "Sure…" as she walked over and said, "here ya go."

C.J. took it and went downstairs just to check and see how she looked. She freshened up a bit, drank some of the coffee and then headed down to her car.

The drive over was pretty uneventful. She turned the radio on and was listening to news radio when she heard about an art auction being advertised. _Rare artifacts from all over the globe….Africa, Asia and Europe, not to mention prehistoric American pieces….the selection is huge and value….extraordinary…Ming Dynasty China, Renaissance Europe….serious collectors only please…trust us, you won't be disappointed….The initial viewing for select individuals starts today at the gallery location on the waterfront, with the auction to take place tomorrow. Don't miss it!_

C.J. clicked off the radio. Her mind was going a mile a minute. I wonder, she thought, I wonder if anything that was stolen from Henderson will show up at this auction. She needed to know so she called Chris, "Hey Chris, I need you to do me a favor."

Chris asked, "Sure what is it?"

C.J. answered, "There is an auction I need to get into. Its down at a gallery on the waterfront, I don't know the name, but they are advertising an art auction for rare historic artifacts. The advertisement said that today, select people could view the items and I want to get into it. Do you think you can call for me?"

Chris answered, "Of course, I highly doubt they would say no to the wife of Matt Houston. They probably think you will be interested in buying a lot of stuff."

C.J. nodded her head and thanked Chris before getting out of her car after arriving at the hospital.


	24. Chapter 24

24

Check out time at the hospital was at noon, but Matt got up at 8 and started getting ready to leave. He had called the beach house and got no answer, but when he called Chris he found out that C.J. had slept in the penthouse. He knew he needed to have another conversation with her then, because that wasn't the agreement. Why was she up at work when she told him she would go home and get a good night's sleep?

He still couldn't wait to see her though. He had been thinking almost the entire time he had been cooped up in that stupid room about how he needed to emphasize to her the importance of her slowing down. She really couldn't keep this pace up forever. He also realized they hadn't really discussed what either expected from the other if one were ever laid up like he had been. He wasn't going to start telling her what to do or anything like that, he just wanted to make sure she knew not to go off and do something dangerous, like investigate a case alone. No, he needed to make it clear he wanted her risk taking days to end, here and now.

C.J. walked in as Matt was sitting on the bed, fully dressed in his red shirt and blue jeans he had Chris courier over and was hitting the nurse call button to get the paperwork expedited so he could finally get sprung.

She closed her eyes, she had forgotten all about bringing clothes over and wondered where he gotten them, but then figured he could call and fix that problem readily enough. Still, that was the only thing he needed from her that day, and she had let him down. It also hit her in a rush that he might have sat on that bed for hours waiting for her, only to find out later she had been murdered the night before.

He saw her standing in the doorway. He got up and walked over to her as he asked, "What's wrong?"

He rubbed both her arms and she opened her eyes and answered, "I forgot to bring you something to change into. I'm so sorry Matt."

He brushed away one lone tear from the corner of her eye with his thumb and asked, "This isn't about the clothes, is it…..Talk to me." He took her by the hand and led her to the bed where they both sat down, facing each other.

She looked at her hands and told him, "I did something last night you aren't going to be happy with. In fact you'll probably be quite angry with me."

His eyes widened and he braced himself for what was coming next as he rubbed her shoulders. He very softly said, "C.J. whatever it is, just tell me. What happened?"

She looked up at him and said, "I know I told you I was going back to the office to work on the file for the case and then go home, but…well…Uncle Roy and Murray found something in the financial records for one of the suspects, Dr. Whitney Moorison. I figured she was trying to hide a large withdraw she made and probably wouldn't be honest if we asked or even if Hoyt pressed it with her, so I broke into her office at LASU and tried to find something that would tell me what she used the money for. We think Gaby and the others were killed by hit men. I thought that maybe that was what the money was used for, to pay them."

Matt took a deep breath and was about to ask a question when a nurse walked in with papers for Matt to sign. He took them and C.J. got up because where she was sitting was blocking the roll away bed table and when she did, the room started spinning and she fell back on the floor.

Matt jumped up, dropped the papers and knelt down, "C.J., C.J. are you ok?" Then he yelled out, "nurse!" as he looked back toward the doorway.

She blinked her eyes and winced as she reached for the top of her head again. Matt was telling her to lay still, but she was sitting up any way. Her face felt a little flush, but she figured it was because she was embarrassed.

Matt softly put his hand where C.J.'s had just been on the top of her head and felt a large knot. "Where did you get this?" he asked quietly but urgently.

She looked back into his eyes, filled with concern and then said, "I got it last night. Listen its not that bad…" The nurse had come back in with another, thinking Matt had hurt himself, but went right over to her and the three helped her back up.

One of them asked her, "Can you sit in this chair or do you feel like you are going to pass out?"

She answered, "No, no I'll be fine really. I can just sit here. I just need a minute."

The other nurse felt the knot and asked, "Have you felt nauseous or felt like your neck was stiff, or have you had trouble remembering things since you hit your head?"

C.J. answered, "No, none of those. I'm fine really. I just stood up too fast." Matt knelt down beside her and held her hand, rubbing it in his two, his eyes probing hers.

The first nurse then felt her forehead, cheeks and neck with her hand. Then she looked back at the top of C.J.'s head and found cuts that appeared infected. That together with the fact that she was warm led the nurse to believe she had an infection, so she asked, "What did you do exactly?"

C.J. took a deep breath. She wanted to tell Matt alone what happened, not in front of two nurses, but the look she was getting from this one, made that not an option so she answered with as little information as possible. "I don't remember exactly. I think something sort of fell on my head that was probably made of glass or porcelain."

Matt looked sort of confused but more frustrated, like he wasn't buying her explanation, "You think something fell on your head?"

The nurse pressed on and asked, "Ok, well, did you go swimming or use some kind of acidic shampoo or something after this happened?"

C.J. nodded and said, "I went swimming sort of….in a lake."

Ok, Matt was really confused now and had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He kept rubbing her hand as one nurse left and brought back some supplies so they could dress the wound after pulling out the remainder of what had struck her. Both Matt and C.J. wanted to see what remained, but only C.J. caught the significance of the shards.

Three small slivers of white porcelain were pulled out with great agony for C.J. She caught that one of the pieces had some kind of blue design to it. Someone hit her with a Ming Dynasty piece of porcelain, or at least a replica. There were a couple of things this could mean, it could and probably did mean that whoever hit her just grabbed the nearest available object. However, given that it wasn't exactly like the light was on, whoever did it, must know the office well. She was still convinced that their primary suspect was Moorison.

After dressing the wound the nurse told them, "You are running a fever I'm sure." She put the finger monitor on her index finger and within a few seconds it read that her temperature was 101.2. Matt took a deep breath and then closed his eyes for a second. The nurse took the monitor back and said, "I'll be right back. I'm sure the doctor will want us to give you an antibiotic shot before we let you two leave."

After she walked out of the room Matt, who's eyes had never left C.J.'s asked, "Ok, tell me exactly what happened last night. Don't leave a single thing out."

She looked down at her hands first and then back at him and started, "Like I said I broke into the office at LASU and was looking around at some of her books when I found a large one on her coffee table on Chinese art and porcelain. It had an image of a Ming vase on the cover and since Hoyt and I noticed in the crime scene photos that the one artifact left by the killer or killers was a piece of Ming porcelain, I opened the book. I remember there being pictures of objects circled in pencil and dollar amounts written beside them." She stopped to take a deep breath as Matt seemed to digest all this and then continued. "That was the last thing I remember about being in the office."

Matt looked up and his eyes narrowed, "What do you mean, that was the last thing you remember?" He knew the story was about take him down a road he didn't want to go down. Her eyes told him that, but he needed to know.

So she took another deep breath and continued, "The next thing I knew my head hurt and I was in the trunk of a car."

Matt started breathing heavily as he thought to himself, 'Someone tried to kill her…I told her….why can't she just listen….' But he didn't say a word, just kept rubbing her hands and then her arms while she finished her account of what happened. "I heard someone get out and push it and then it began filling up with water. I pushed my way out and into the backseat before breaking a window and swimming to safety."

Matt closed his eyes and she took her hand and put it to his cheek and told him, "I'm fine…."

"Fine?" he asked rather loudly, "Fine? You call almost getting killed, fine?" She closed her eyes, she knew this was coming so she let him vent for a minute. She would remind him about his being knocked out by a killer and left in a warehouse that was set on fire or about the countless other times he had someone pull a gun and take him by gunpoint somewhere later.

"C.J. someone hit you over the head, drug you out to a car putting you in the trunk and then pushed it off into a lake!" He stood up and started pacing then knelt back down. Tears began forming in her eyes as she was still very tired and that broke him a little so he took her in his arms. "Listen, we are going home today and staying there, alright? You are going to let me take care of you for the rest of the afternoon. No buts either C.J. You are going to eat and take one hell of a long nap."

She nodded her head as she was feeling more tired than before. The nurse came in with a needle and C.J. took the antibiotic shot and the instructions from the doctor to rest, drink plenty of fluids, eat well and call if the fever returns. After signing all the bureaucratic forms, Matt and C.J. walked out to her car. He opened the passenger side door for her and then got in to drive them back to the beach house.


	25. Chapter 25

25

Driving to the beach house, C.J. told Matt that all she wanted to do was continue working on the case and pull together information for him to use. He held her hand the entire ride and rubbed it and could tell it was helping her relax because she kept yawning. He understood what she was telling him and truth be told, it wasn't exactly like she was trying to do much more than she had in the past. Although the breaking and entering thing was new and usually he wasn't in the hospital leaving her alone to do it all, no, the biggest difference was he always led the investigation.

Suddenly the phone rang in the car and Matt answered it. It was Chris and she was trying to reach C.J. to tell her she got her into that pre auction viewing at 7pm tonight. Matt replied with, "Ok, well, she's not going tonight, she's staying in."

Chris asked, "I thought she wanted to go because it was connected to the case?"

Matt looked at C.J. who had fallen asleep already. He asked Chris, "Do you know how?"

Chris answered, "Not exactly, but I can drop by all the information and files she put together. They may tell you."

Matt nodded his head and asked her to either have it sent over or bring it by, hopefully in the next hour or so. He then asked that she call Tuscan Sunset and offer a big tip to whoever could deliver C.J.'s favorite pasta over to the beach house before clicking off the phone.

He looked at his wife peacefully sleeping and at lights would brush the hair off her face. She was so beautiful and he loved her so much, he thought to himself. He just wanted her to take it easier and not take any more risks. He felt a little twinge in his back as he shifted position once but other than that, felt fine. No pain medications were needed in his opinion, so he had no desire to stop by any pharmacy on the way home.

Once they arrived at the beach house, Matt helped C.J. get out of the car. He put his arm around her and she put her arm around his waist as they walked to the door together. He frowned when he noticed the five newspapers sitting on the porch. He bent over to pick them up and asked, "So you never came back home?"

She yawned and answered, "No, I guess not. I took care of myself, Matt, really I did. I just did it in the penthouse."

He shook his head, "That's not good enough. Now you are going right upstairs young lady and take a nap."

"Matt, I am supposed to be taking care of you. You just got released," she countered with, but was practically yawning at the same time.

Matt opened the door, took her by the hand and led her up the stairs to their master bedroom. He turned to face her, softly placing his hands on her face and brushing back her hair back he leaned over and gave her a short soft kiss on the lips. "Now, why don't you climb into bed here and get some rest."

She was so tired and the bed looked so inviting. Looking back at Matt she said, "Will you be joining me?"

Now it had been days since she had been in his arms when they showered together and he wanted nothing more than to climb into bed with her, but the weariness in her eyes caused him to pause. She needed her rest badly and all he had wanted to do since he got shot was tend to her. Matt knew the toll his being shot had taken on her and hated seeing her like that.

He loved her so much, so he said, "Yes I will, come here." He led her by the hand to the bed, pulled the covers back and then motioned for her to get in. She took her shoes off and slid under the blankets. He climbed in behind her and put his arms around her as she laid her head on his chest. It took all of 8 minutes for her to be asleep. He still had trouble keeping the mental image of what happened last night out of his head.

Matt carefully got up and went back downstairs. He saw Chris' car pull up out the window and went down to meet her. She was carrying the file folder and a paper bag with _Tuscan Sunset_ on the side. He took that from her and the two went into the kitchen.

Chris said, "I got her favorite" as she pulled out the trays. Matt took them and put them in the fridge.

"Thank you Chris, I owe you that tip." Matt said back.

"No need, " Chris said with a smile, "I'm happy to help. She has a lot of information here for you." She reached back into her purse and told him, "Here's the VIP pass to get you in to view the collection. I got it put under your name, they wouldn't take C.J.'s."

He took it and nodded. Matt hoped the case file would tell him what she was thinking. He wanted her to sleep all night long even though it was only 3pm now, but he knew that probably wasn't what was going to happen. So, he would talk to her maybe if she woke up before he got ready to leave. He looked over the pass and saw two of the most dreaded words to him, _Black Tie_. Ugh, this meant he would have to donn the penguin outfit again.

He thanked Chris again and made a little coffee before going upstairs to check on C.J. again. Her body had not moved an inch and he thought she must be more exhausted than she realized. He went back down and took that file and read it cover to cover. He found the graphic crime scene photos first and it caused him to put it down for a second. His heart ached for Walter Aleman, not only finding out that his daughter was gone forever, but that her death had been this violent. C.J. had clearly circled the image in the background of a blue and white plate in a rectangular bucket of water. She had written, _Ming Dynasty, $$$_ beside it in pencil.

All of the biographical information was there and she had 5 clear suspects. Amy Dalton was first, she had a picture clipped to the print out. She had several harassment charges filed against her by a whole list of men starting from about the time she was 16. On top of all that there were a couple of 'Destruction of Property' charges associated with three of them. C.J. speculated that she didn't appear to have enough money or opportunity to actually commit the crime, especially if professionals were involved.

Then there was Rex Balmouth, even his picture appeared angry. C.J. had the printout with the list of sanitariums and any notifications made to the college by psychiatrists. His mother it appeared paid people well to keep her disturbed and social misfit of a son in school. This meant he would have the opportunity, in that he had the money to pay a professional hit man. The only thing that wasn't entirely clear to C.J. was whether or not he knew the location of the expedition. A referral was completed by Henderson and Moorison, she found, that referenced the episode when he learned he didn't get the RA position and one from when he received a B in Moorison's Statistics in History course. He squinted as he tried to read what she had penciled in but then erased. If he wasn't mistaken she had added, _tried to hit his girlfriend, had to stop him, threatened by women like me._

Matt ran his hand through his hair. Ok, he needed to take a deep breath. Did she confront Balmouth? It seemed to him like she was saying she got physical with a psychopath and blocked him from attacking his girlfriend and then he threatened her. Well, Matt decided, he would have to find this Balmouth and explain things. It didn't matter if he was guilty of the murder or not, Matt would meet up with him soon enough and set him straight. He figured Balmouth was the type that thought he could push women around and get physical if he wanted to. Well, Matt was going to show him that not only was C.J. not alone, but had a rather large, well built husband with enough money that his mama couldn't intimidate him.

Then he found the printout and picture of Dr. Alexander Whitehead. She had all the academic information on him along with the words, _short affair, Michelle's research on importance of trade with China for Spain, thought she found a legendary shipwreck_ and _low end salary. _She also seemed to indicate that he had an airtight alibi for the time of the killing and didn't seem to feel he had the money to hire a hit man. In fact there were no unusual withdraws from his bank account and only one source of income, LASU.

Next was Fred Henderson. C.J. basically recounted what he had told her about the way they met, that they worked together and how that had caused them to drift apart and for one of them to have an affair. He put the file down for a second and thought to himself, 'I wonder if she thinks...' but he stopped himself there. He knew C.J. trusted him, but still he had a past he was all too well aware of and that Ms. Dalton kept reminding everyone. No, she was the love of his life and he had no interest in any other woman now or later. He would make sure she knew that when this case ended. In fact, he had considered another trip to Tahiti while he was recovering in the hospital.

She had also noted that he didn't seem to have the funds to hire anyone, but did know where the expedition was, similar to Whitehead.

Finally, the last suspect was Dr. Whitney Moorison. Her biographical information was in the file with her picture. C.J. clearly thought this was the primary suspect and she was the only person whose office C.J. broke into...and wait...it was also the office she was attacked in. She knew where the expedition was to take place and she had an unusual cash withdraw about the time of the attack. The only thing missing was motive. C.J. had penciled in that she appeared distraught at the memorial service, that they were friends, and that her field was entirely different, East Asia. However, at the bottom of the page she had created a little flow chart type diagram. It read, _Spain, Pacific, Philippines, China, East Asia, MING DYNASTY._ The emphasis seemed to be on that last item and Matt flipped back to the previous crime scene photos where C.J. had identified the artifact as being from that dynasty. It hit him as he looked over the VIP passes Chris brought over. This auction was actually featuring newly found and rare Ming Dynasty porcelain.


	26. Chapter 26

26

Matt called Hoyt and got him to come over. He filled him in on what he had learned from C.J.'s file and he agreed that the person who committed these crimes was probably the one who put the items in the auction for tomorrow. So Hoyt left to go back to the precinct and assign men to cover the auction undercover.

C.J. woke up to an empty bed. She could hear Matt and Hoyt downstairs and then the door close. She got up, still quite tired and started out the bedroom door and down the stairs where she found Matt on his way up to check on her. "You feeling better?" He asked as he felt her forehead which did seem cooler than before.

She nodded and went right into his embrace. He rubbed her back and she closed her eyes. They broke the embrace long enough for her to ask, "What have you been doing while I was sleeping?"

He took her hand and led her over to the couch with the file. They sat down and he told her, "Well, I've been looking through this. I gotta say Mz. Houston that you are one top notch investigator. Its very thorough and you seem to have a clear idea as to who was behind these murders."

She seemed pleased by that, but Matt wasn't done yet. "However, there are a couple of things I'd like to ask you about."

C.J. looked back at him puzzled, "Like what?"

Matt opened the folder to the printout of Rex Balmouth and asked her, "I take it you interviewed him?"

Ok, she knew he wasn't going to like what she had to tell him and it was pretty clear he already had a good general idea of what happened, so she tried to calmly explain, "Well, sort of. When I got coffee with Henderson to talk to him, Balmouth was there and he started to try to hit his girlfriend and I stopped him. Those self defense moves really came in handy. In fact I never really felt threatened." She smiled hoping he'd just let it go and not go off and beat up this young but stupid kid.

Matt nodded and asked point blank, "Did he threaten you?"

C.J. swallowed, Matt's eyes squarely looking into hers and she answered, "Kind of...he did get in my face when I let him go and he may have said something he wanted me to take as a threat."

Matt's hands clenched, but he kept a calm demeanor when he said, "Oh and what exactly did he say?"

C.J. looked up and said, "Oh just something about women having to sleep with men to get ahead and something about my needing to know my place in society. But really, Matt, its not like I haven't heard this garbage before and it probably won't be the last time either."

Matt understood that, but he hated it at the same time. She was a brilliant woman who never should have to listen to some, probably insecure little idiot say something like that to her. No woman should, in his opinion. Unfortunately, he thought, there are enough of them out there that women, like his wife, knew they would encounter at least one in their lives.

He took his hands and rubbed her arms as he tried to focus on her and calm himself down. He wasn't hunting this caveman down now, but he would later. So he changed the subject.

"I take it you figured out the auction tomorrow is going to be used to sell the items stolen off the boat after the killing." He said.

C.J.'s eyes widened, she forgot all about that. "How did you know?" she asked because she hadn't been the one to tell him.

He pulled the VIP passes out of the folder and showed her, "Chris came through for you. She got two passes. I talked to Hoyt and he's going to have men all over it so you can stay here tonight and get some rest while we handle it."

She was shaking her head, "Oh no you don't. I know what to look for and you don't. Besides there are two passes here so they expect both of us. I'll go get ready." She started to get up when he put his hand on her arm and pulled her back to his side.

"No, you don't. You are going to stay here and get some rest." he said and then added, "I have all the pictures here that I need to figure out who is doing the selling. C.J. I appreciate all the work you have put into this, but honey, someone attacked you last night. Now I don't want them seeing you and getting the idea to do that again. They might actually think they succeeded and if you show up to this, they'll know they didn't and that might make them come after you again." Then he softened his approach, "You already have a small head injury that got infected. Please, I want you to stay put and get a little more rest, ok? You know, you never used to have a problem with me telling you to stay put."

C.J. took a deep breath and answered, "I know and fine, I guess, I'll stay put. So, who are you taking with you?"

Matt looked back at the passes and thought to himself then answered, "Uncle Roy I think." He looked back at her and heard her stomach grumble. He smiled as he asked her, "You wouldn't be hungry now would you?"

She rolled her eyes and answered, "Yes, I would be. I didn't really eat before I drove over to pick you up." She started to get up again, but he stopped her.

Before she knew it, he came back to the couch with a round aluminum pan filled with her favorite, from Tuscan Sunset no less. She smiled as he handed it to her and said, "Is that what I think it is?"

He carefully put it in her hands with the fork and told her, "Oh yes it is. I had Chris bring it over while you were sleeping. I want you to eat all of this and then go take a shower and then go right to bed. You have some catching up to do, I think."

She took a bite of clearly what she thought was nirvana and then told him, "I told you Matt, I should be taking care of you like this, not the other way around."

He kissed her softly on the lips and said, "I told you, I'm recovering just fine and now you need someone to look out for you. I'll go get my plate and we can enjoy a nice dinner together...at home...eating food we can recognize." he said as he walked down the stairs.

They did enjoy their dinner and the glasses of wine he brought up for the both of them. After they finished he went to shower and change and she put the dishes up. As she was finishing up, she noticed two men lurking around on the boardwalk, right outside their beach house. She carefully walked over to the couch and pulled her gun out of her purse. Since she could still hear Matt crooning away upstairs to Johnny Cash, she assumed this was something she would have to take care of herself.

C.J. positioned herself behind the blinds to the door. She could clearly see the two men, but she remained invisible to them. They looked over at the door frequently and whenever someone would walk past them, would turn quickly and look out at the ocean. It appeared to her that they were trying to case the beach house and she didn't think it was because they wanted to steal anything necessarily.

Ok, she thought, what do I do now? Should she go out and confront them? Probably not, Matt would be furious with her, especially with him right upstairs. Should she just watch and then call up to Matt when she knew he got out of the shower? No, they were close enough to hear her if she were to do that. So, what should she do? She could watch them and then tell Matt when he came down looking for her, but he might miss the auction and it was too important to finding out who killed Gaby Aleman and the others. Think, C.J. think.


	27. Chapter 27

27

"C.J." Matt called out as he made his way down the stairs in his black tux. He was all ready to go except for that stupid tie he never could tie properly. "I need some help here." She wasn't on the couch though. "C.J." he called out, a little quieter this time as he looked around and noticed how quiet it was.

He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as he moved down the stairs cautiously looking for his wife and trying not to panic. He found her with her gun in front of her peeking out the window to the right of the glass doors behind a bookshelf. She motioned to him to stay quiet and go into a small closet right beside him.

They could hear someone trying to break in. They were giggling the handle and given how quickly they got it open, Matt figured they must be professionals.

Matt had his gun drawn as soon as he saw C.J. with hers but swallowed hard and wished beyond all reason that he was behind the door and she were over in the closet he occupied. The two men slowly entered and neither saw C.J. as she remained hidden behind that bookshelf.

Once they got past her she made her move, clicking the safety off she told them, "Don't take one step."

They froze and Matt came out with his weapon drawn and said, "Like the lady said, don't take one step." Both men seemed at a loss as to how to proceed now, with two guns on them, so they put their hands up. Matt asked, "Now tell me, who are you and what are you doing in my home?"

The man closest to Matt answered, "We're just here for a book."

"A book? What book?" Matt asked.

The second man answered, "The book she took from Dr. Moorison."

C.J. interrupted here, "I didn't take any book from Dr. Moorison. Why do you think I took anything from her?"

The first man spoke up, "Look, I just do as I'm told and I was told you took a book and I was supposed to get it back."

Matt then asked, "Who sent you to get this book and how do you know my wife has ever been in Dr. Moorison's office to steal a book?"

The second man answered, "Like he said, we just do what we're told." Then he looked at C.J. and said, "It wasn't personal, we were just told to hide the body. We didn't know you were still alive."

C.J. looked nervously at Matt. She knew his instinct might just be to drop his gun and grab the man by the throat and throttle him good for basically just confessing to being the one responsible for putting her in the trunk of the car and sending it into the lake. She noticed he did blink more than once and swallowed hard, even closing his eyes for just a second, but other than that, did a good job maintaining his composure.

He kept his gun on them as he walked up to them, patted them down, removed their weapons and then tied them up. The two explained that they were told she stole the book the first time she broke in, but was caught by their boss the second time. When pressed as to why they needed the book, they clammed up.

C.J. then went over to the phone and called Hoyt so they could be picked up. After these two were squared away, C.J. helped Matt fix his tie and then he and Hoyt left right after he called Roy to get him to attend the auction. But before leaving, Matt took his wife in his arms and kissed her for a good 5 minutes.

C.J. went upstairs to take a shower herself. She pulled out of the closet one of her, or Matt's, favorite 'outfits' and decided she still had one more promise to make good on when he got home.

She didn't hear the third professional hit man quietly unlock the door and start looking around before going upstairs. He made one phone call while the water ran above him, "Yea, listen they got Paul and Mark...no, I don't think they'll say anything, they know what I'll do to them if they do...I know you said we didn't need it but I think we do, and no, she wasn't dead...you told us you killed her and all you wanted us to do was get rid of the body...yes, fine...I'll take care of it now...you better fetch at that auction what you told me." With that, he put the phone down and went up the stairs to the master bedroom.

C.J. got out and was toweling off before slipping on the black silk, lacy, floor length number Matt loved. As she brushed her hair she heard the steps creak once. She took a deep breath and slowly went to the nightstand and took out Matt's gun, the one he used to keep under his pillow. Slowly making her way to the bedroom door all she could hear was breathing.

Once he got past her she stepped behind him to draw her gun to him, but he heard her and turned around quickly knocking the gun out of her hand. Then he grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back and asked, "Where is it?"

She blinked her eyes and tried to concentrate, "Where is what?"

He pulled her arm tighter and asked again, "The book, the one with all the notations on that Chinese porcelain. I know you have it, where is it?"

He wasn't yelling at her, actually he was being rather quiet. She figured he really thought she had that book and she knew what was in it. So, apparently this guy was being conned by whoever it was that killed the three on the boat. He was one of the professional hit men, so she used that information to her advantage. "I know what book you are talking about and I know why you want it, but I don't have it. In fact I have a feeling the person who has it, is planning on double crossing you."

He pushed her down onto the floor and asked, "What are you talking about? What do you know?" The look in his eyes was murderous and she knew she needed to tread carefully here. She was looking into the eyes of one of the remorseless killers.

Matt and Roy got in easily enough to the auction. They had looked over and over again at the pictures and were hoping to see one person that matched. They didn't see one, they saw 4 people, Amy, Moorison, Whitehead and Rex. "Great, I was hoping there'd only be one." Matt said. The two walked in and tried to see any listing for the Ming art that would reveal the seller, but found that it was unlisted.

Matt had a hard time controlling himself when he saw Rex. That was the little bug he hoped to essentially squash later. Matt and Roy talked about exactly how to proceed and decided to divide and conquer.

When they discussed it, Matt said, "Look, I'll take Moorison and Rex, you take Amy and Whitehead."

Roy looked at him knowing there was something going on here, the look on Matt's face when he saw Amy and Rex told him that. So he asked, "What's up boy?"

They walked around a little bit and noticed over 200 Ming Dynasty objects for sale. Matt answered as they appeared to be checking it all out, "Well, I'd like to talk to Moorison, C.J. thinks this is the prime suspect, Amy, well, it'd be better if she didn't see me at all, and Rex Balmouth, well, he and I need to set a few things straight."

Roy noticed Matt's fist clench and he adjusted his jaw and said, "Remember we are here on a mission and that mission does not include getting arrested for assault."

Matt looked around and kept his demeanor calm and replied, "I know that Uncle Roy, but I also know that before that man leaves this auction tonight he will understand that if I ever catch him harming another woman I will make his life a living hell, and that goes double if my wife factors into that in any way."

They reached the end of the tables with the Ming objects and was approached by an auction representative who asked, "Can I help you gentlemen. These objects have only recently been discovered and are incredibly valuable."

They shook hands and Matt replied, "I am very interested in a couple of these teacups. My wife, bless her heart, couldn't make it tonight. We missed each other at the house, but I know she loves this Ming stuff and she collects these," he said as he pointed to them. "Her birthday is coming up and I really want to get her something special."

The man looked very pleased as he recognized the name tag and said, "Well, Mr. Houston, these are estimated to go at $10,000 each. You see..." he said as he carefully picked one up and turned it over, "these have an emperor seal which means that the emperor, in this case Yongle, actually used the cup. He was the second Ming emperor and the one who sponsored the famous expeditions of Admiral Zheng He."

Matt nodded his head as if he knew exactly what the man was explaining to him. He smiled and thanked him for the information and signed up for a VIP pass the next day, the day of the actual auction.

At that point Roy left him to talk to Amy Dalton. He had heard from the security guards all about her little outburst in the penthouse and her apparent fascination with his nephew. "Why hello there...you wouldn't be Amy Dalton would you?"

She looked at him surprised, but focused more on Matt and said, "Why yes, I would be. You must be Roy Houston. I've heard so much about you," she said as she smiled.

"Really?" Roy asked, "well I've heard a little about you too. So what brings you to this auction viewing tonight?"

"Well..." she said as she took his arm to explain. He looked down at her taking his arm and just watched her closely as she continued, "the history department all got special passes to check out the historical artifacts. They need them to verify everything. They also give them to grad and undergrad students. They think it'll be a good experience for us." They continued to walk around.

"So, is anyone in the department selling anything?" he asked.

She answered, "I don't know, they're keeping everything so secret here. Why don't we change the subject and talk about that gorgeous nephew of yours." She looked over at Matt walking over to Dr. Moorison and said, "So exactly how devoted is he to that so called wife of his?"

Roy didn't appreciate what Ms. Dalton here was insinuating so he spoke up, "Very devoted. In fact, I've never seen two people more devoted to each other. There's nothing one wouldn't do for the other and they've known each other almost all their lives."

Amy stopped cold and looked at Roy and said, "Really. Well, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. Excuse me, but I see a professor I should probably go talk to." She didn't exactly storm off, but she definitely left in a huff.


	28. Chapter 28

28

Matt had approached Dr. Moorison who was standing at the beginning of the Ming artifacts table, talking to the auction representative and said, "Dr. Moorison...I thought I recognized you. My name's Matt Houston, I was hired by Walter Aleman..." as soon as he said that name her demeanor changed and she looked down. A second ago, she had been smiling.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean bring up something so tragic at an event so important to you and your department, but I am investigating their deaths. I was hoping to talk to you last week, but I got tied up sort of speak." He said.

She nodded, "You were shot I believe was what I heard. Fred told me at the memorial service we had for Michelle, Gaby and Mikey." They started walking.

She asked, "Do you know how valuable all these artifacts are Mr. Houston?"

Matt answered, "Not really. My wife knows much more about Chinese art and artifacts than I do. She had a friend who was a Far East expert that worked for the County Museum of Art. Her name was Connie Ling."

She nodded her head, "I knew her. She would bring a few things down to the campus and ask me to look at them. Tragic what happened to her and then her friend. I heard she was shot trying to prove her innocence."

Matt's mind took him back for a split second to seeing C.J. lying on the ground bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds, her blood in pools on the sidewalk. He noticed it right after pulling her down and then trying to shield her body with his own. After the shots ended he noticed she wasn't moving and panic set in right away as he said her name and rolled her over. Now Matt blinked and said, "That friend is now my wife and I don't think I will ever forget that day as long as I live."

Moorison decided to focus on Connie and not C.J. so she explained, "She came in fairly often until the day she died. See, I study East Asian history and have focused most of my research on the Ming Dynasty and the Chinese advantage in science and technology. You see, up until the Qing Dynasty, the last of the great Chinese dynasties, China had the advantage over Europe. Its quite amazing to think about really. The Admiral Zheng He engaged in maritime explorations almost a hundred years before Columbus and there are rumors and some scant evidence that the Chinese made it all the way to California. That's something to think about, if the Chinese beat Europe to the Americas."

Matt nodded and then asked, "So back to these valuable artifacts. I am assuming whoever is selling these is going to make a fortune, huh?"

She took a deep breath and said, "Yes, I'm sure whoever it is will. No one else has these."

He prodded, "Where did they get them? Don't they have to prove they attained them legitimately?"

She stopped, "No, they don't and the auction house does not have to report the holder."

He asked, "You seem to know a lot about how this process works."

She answered, "I should, I've been verifying artifacts for them for years. Now, if you will excuse me, Mr. Houston, most of my department is here and I need to make contact with each one of them. These deaths have hit us all hard and I, as the chair, need to be there for my fellow professors."

She started to walk away and Matt looked for his uncle. He found him talking to Dr. Whitehead.

"Dr. Whitehead I presume," Roy said as he extended his hand. Alexander didn't recognize him, but figured he was probably a professor in another field he simply didn't know.

"Yes...I'm sorry, I don't recognize you, are you a fellow faculty member?" he asked.

Roy answered, "Well, until my 'encouraged retirement' I taught criminal justice. I just love how universities use us almost until death and then push us aside for the younger, and more popular faculty. We were teaching the large classes and living the past while they were still in diapers."

Alexander nodded and then added, "Don't I know it. The kicker is that we get paid essentially the same as when we were brought on board while these new hires get twice that." He shook his head, "Its wrong, no respect for elders anymore. Not by the university and certainly not by the students."

They kept walking and Roy added, "Too bad one of us fossils can't make a find like this one. Talk about sweet justice."

Alexander chuckled, "Yeah, right. But no respectable historian would sell a find like this one. It would be expected that the objects would be turned over to an archive or museum. Not sold like some common garage sell find." He looked at Roy and then said, "Of course, I would probably keep just one. I mean think about, to own something used by an emperor once...Anyway, I need to get back to the department and make sure the almighty chair sees me here. Take care." He said as he left. Roy looked around but didn't see Matt.

Outside, actually right by the back entrance in the alleyway, Matt had Rex Balmouth pinned to the wall by his throat. "Now, I am only going to explain this once. If I ever hear of you laying one hand in anger against a woman, I will be on you so fast, you won't know what hit you. And if I ever, EVER, see you within 10 feet of my wife...the one that stopped you from hitting your girlfriend in that coffee shop...there won't be anything left for her to press charges against."

He was trying to respond to Matt but really couldn't get anything out. Matt didn't need to hear any excuses, when he had approached him in the auction he was verbally abusing his girlfriend calling her names and saying she was stupid.

Matt just continued, "And if you think Mommy is going to get me off your back...think again. I'm not some jealous boyfriend you can buy off or college administrator your family's money can intimidate. I have more money and influence in this town than you or your mother will ever have and I can make your life miserable."

He released Rex who then rubbed his neck and said, "You're crazy, about as crazy as that wife of yours." He started running though because as soon as he mentioned C.J., the look on Matt's face told him to run.

Matt didn't chase him down but went back inside and found Roy and Hoyt. Hoyt was in his own penguin suit and gave him the same, 'I hate black tie' look. So as he approached he said, "You look nice."

Hoyt answered, "Don't push it, P.I. I didn't get a lot of information from the auction house official so I have Det. Warren waking up Judge Harmago right now to get a warrant to find out who listed all this stuff."

At that moment an employee walked up to the three and asked, "I'm sorry, Mr. Matt Houston?"

Matt nodded and asked, "Yes?"

The man told him, "Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt, but you have a phone call on the house phone. Its your wife."


	29. Chapter 29

29

C.J. knew she had to tread carefully with this hit man so she slowly stood up. As she did she said, "The book you're looking for I believe has estimates for all that Chinese porcelain you took off the boat."

The man took a deep breath and then shifted the weight from one leg to another. He motioned to her to move to the bed, "How much do you know?"

She understood clearly the gravity of the question he asked her. Thinking quickly would be the only thing keeping her alive. She had to prove that he needed her more alive than dead so she told him, "I know a lot about Ming Dynasty artifacts. I had a friend who was a specialist for a museum. I can tell you myself what those objects are worth, you don't need the book."

He seemed skeptical so he asked, "Describe it for me."

She swallowed hard as she looked at the gun pointed at her. "It tends to be blue and white. All of it is valuable, but vases are worth more than porcelain animals, unless they're dragons. Anything used by the emperor is worth a lot more than vase."

He digested that and then asked, "How can you tell if it was used by an emperor?"

C.J. knew she was getting through so she said, "It has a seal on the bottom. Connie used to show me when she found something like that. I know what look for."

"How much money are we talking about?" he asked just making sure she was worth the risk of keeping alive.

"Depends..." she answered, "vases could go for as high as $100,000 if they are in good shape and can be dated. Items of the Forbidden City, objects used by the emperor can go for double."

The look on his face could best be described as restrained excitement so she asked him, "I'm betting your source didn't tell you that did she?"

Now he looked surprised and said, "I didn't say I worked for anyone, male or female. Now get dressed, you and I have an auction viewing to go to."

C.J. walked slowly over to the closet thinking, 'Matt's there...what's he gonna do when he sees me.' After putting on a nice formal gown she told him, "My husband is there and I don't want him to distract us. Let me call him and lure him away. I don't want anyone to get hurt and you won't be able to find out anything if there is a shootout."

He nodded his head and then said, "Fine, I never meant to shoot him in the first place. He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I only take out those I'm paid to and I don't like working for free."

C.J. closed her eyes for a second as she focused on remaining calm before she made that call. His admission to shooting Matt made her want to hurt him.

Matt looked confused but followed the man over to a phone and said, "C.J., what are you doing? Is everything alright?"

She took a deep breath as the man with the gun held the phone to her ear and listened with her as she explained, "Matt, I don't feel that well. Is there any way you can home? You know I wouldn't ask if I didn't really need you."

Matt heard something in her voice he didn't entirely recognize but he had been concerned about her since that nurse told them she was running a fever. "Are you running a fever again?"

She answered, "Yes, I think so, and I feel sick at my stomach. All that Chinese we ate. Please come home."

Matt thought to himself, 'Chinese? We had Italian for dinner...how high is that fever?' He told her, "Ok, listen just take it easy and go get in bed. I'll be there in a minute." He put the receiver down and briskly walked over to Roy and Hoyt and told them he had to go. They told him they would call him later and tell him what happened and he left.

C.J. put the phone down and the man told her, "Good job, now lets go." He motioned with the gun to the door and C.J. walked out, without her purse. She left it on purpose.

Matt and C.J. probably crossed paths on the highway, but neither would know it. The man who held her took out two VIP passes and told her to put on the name badge which read _Mrs. Smith_. She said, "Mrs. Smith, really? You couldn't get any more original than that?"

He squeezed her arm harder as they walked in and told her, "Just focus on the job at hand. You need to keep yourself valuable to me, if you know what I mean."

She knew so she walked in carefully and smiled at all the right people as more had shown up at that point. Two people remained though, Hoyt and Roy. They both saw her come in and looked at each other. Matt told them she called saying she was sick and here she was on the arm of some stranger with a name badge identifying her as Mrs. Smith.

They knew something was wrong here, especially the look she gave Roy as he walked past, subtly shaking her head. He kept walking but used those skills he gained as a covert operative to surmise that the man was packing and that C.J. was his hostage.

He led her over to the objects and C.J. whispered amounts for each one. Halfway through the table, the man's boss, the one who paid him to kill the three in the first place, the one behind all this, stood before them.

'I was right,' C.J. told herself. Dr. Whitney Moorison asked the man in a whisper, "What are you doing here? Are you crazy? I thought you said you were a professional?"

He answered back in a whisper, "You lied to me. You're trying to rip us off. This stuff is worth a lot more than you told us and you owe us a lot more than we originally agreed to. For someone that's supposed to be so smart, double crossing professional hit men was an incredibly stupid thing to do."

She looked around and said, "Look, lets step in the back and we can work this out. I promise."

The three walked back behind the double doors to the staging area. Hoyt and Roy noticed and Hoyt called in to the men behind the building staking it out and then called in to Warren to hurry up. He had an idea that he probably didn't need the warrant anymore. He figured the seller of the Ming objects was Dr. Moorison.

Once behind the doors Moorison turned to the man and asked, "What on earth are you thinking, bringing her here? She broke into my office and found the book. She knows too much!" She paced as she looked back out to make sure no one was close enough to hear them.

He told her, "She seems to know a lot about that stuff out there and her numbers are higher than yours. So I'm thinking that instead of waiting at the warehouse during that auction, I think I'll hang out here."

She looked back at C.J. and then asked him, "So what do you plan to do with her in the meantime?"

C.J. swallowed hard. He looked back and said, "I guess she's right. You have worn out your usefulness to me. I'm sorry, its not personal. You're too big a liability now." He turned back to Moorison, "I'll stash her at the warehouse for now and eliminate her in the morning when I get paid. Until then she lives. Think of double crossing me or selling me out and I let her go. She'll have you turned in fast and I'll be in the wind."

C.J. spoke up just then, "I need one of you to explain something to me first."


	30. Chapter 30

30

Matt got home in record time and noticed the door wasn't locked. "C.J." he called out. He rushed a little faster upstairs and found that there was no sign of her. He ran his hand through his hair and then rubbed his forehead when he noticed his gun, the one he keeps in his nightstand on the floor behind the bedroom door.

He ran back down the stairs when the phone rang. He picked it up, praying it would tell him where C.J. was and that she was safe.

It was Roy, "Matlock, C.J. isn't there is she?"

"No Uncle Roy she's not. Where is she? What's going on?" he asked as calmly as he could.

Roy looked back over at the closed door he knew she was standing behind, "She's down here at the auction."

"The auction...what is she doing at the auction?" he asked almost frantically.

Roy answered, "She didn't come alone boy. I have a feeling it wasn't her idea."

Matt closed his eyes, "He has a gun on her doesn't he?"

Roy replied, "I think so. Hoyt and I have our eyes on the situation. She isn't just leaving this auction house. We won't let her."

Matt swallowed hard and told them, "Just be careful. I don't want her caught in any crossfire. I'm on my way." He ran out and jumped into his car to speed back over there.

C.J. cleared her throat. "I need to know...why? Why would you kill your friend and two innocent young people...why?" She was clearly asking Moorison.

She looked back at her puzzled, "Why do you think? You don't understand my world Ms. Houston. It took me forever to get my Ph.D. and then it seemed like forever for me to get a real job. Then I got to see Ph.D. after Ph.D come in and sign with the university for twice, sometimes three times what I make a year. The newer the hire, the bigger the salary. I've put up with so much garbage for the last 12 years as a faculty member that I can't even begin to tell you. I have to publish every year on top of all the administrative crap I get stuck with now. All those snot nosed little brats that want an A just for gracing us with their presence in class, they don't feel the need to demonstrate they learned a damn thing, they just feel entitled. And I get to hear it, day in and day out. That is when I'm not hearing these tenured, supposed to be a adults fighting each other like they're children. 'He did this...she said this... blah, blah, blah.' I'm sick of it and when no one else wanted the privilege, I got stuck with another 4 year term. Well, I want out and this collection will get me out. You couldn't possibly understand."

C.J. was getting angry, "So three young people had to die, so you could get out, as you call it, retire, because you job was just too stressful?"

She walked over to C.J. and slapped her, "I loved Michelle, she was my friend. But she was stupid. All she was going to do was donate all this. I couldn't convince her to just give me a couple of pieces to sell myself, oh no...she wanted it all to go to stupid museums so people can walk by them and not really read any of the information or care for that matter the significance of what they are seeing. Of course, she was a new hire. As soon as that book got published she would have made twice my salary. She had a husband and a lover on the side. It gets really old seeing someone with everything and not appreciate any of it."

C.J. had heard enough and had been patiently waiting to see the hit man put his guard down. So far, he had done a good job keeping his eye on her, but during Moorison's tirade he lost focus and that's when she moved.

Matt had just made his way back in and was talking to Hoyt and Roy coordinating with the undercover officers when gunshots rang out in that back room. Matt almost stopped breathing as he ran, without thinking into the room, gun drawn. He found C.J. and a man laying down facing each other, neither moving.

"Oh god, C.J." he said as he ran to her. She started to sit up slowly as he knelt down behind her and supported her back while looking over her body to check for bullet wounds. She was just trying to regain her composure. When she moved against the man they fought over the gun and it went off. Luckily the bullet missed her and hit him. However, when she went down, that knot on her head made contact with the leg of a table, it hurt and stunned her at the same time.

He gathered her into his arms and was checking her out when Hoyt and Roy ran in. "Call an ambulance" he said terrified as he kept moving the hair off her face trying to look into her eyes which still seemed to be staring into the eyes of the dead hit man.

She snapped out of it and then said, "No, I'm fine, but Dr. Moorison is the one who hired him and the two others to kill Henderson and Gaby. She confessed when we were in here alone. She ran out the back door," she said as she pointed to it.

Then, she closed her eyes as she winced again and instinctively felt her head. Matt wasn't convinced she was fine and said, "We're getting you to a hospital to get that checked out. Can you stand up?"

She nodded her head and he helped her to her feet keeping his arms around her waist. It took a minute as she was shaky, but he led her out to his car and helped her in, she refused to let him carry her out. Three hours later they were back at the beach house. She had checked out, basically ok, but was told to go home and get some rest.

Matt carried her up to the room and laid her on the bed. He sat down beside her and said, "Are you sure about this? I still think we should have stayed at Mead Woods tonight." He kept running his hand through her hair.

"I'll be fine Matt. Its been such a long week. I just wanted to come home," she tried to reassure him. He had already planned to wake himself up every hour to wake her up just to be on the safe side. He ran back down and make sure everything was locked up before settling in with her for the night. He took her in his arms and held her all night long.

The next morning Matt woke up first and brushed a kiss off her forehead, the way he typically does before slowing getting out of bed to take a shower. Once he got downstairs, he decided to call Hoyt.

"No its not a good morning," Hoyt answered back in a grumpier than normal voice. "We lost Moorison last night. No sign of her anywhere. Apartment's been cleaned out and her office. Woman's got a passport and has been all over the world. No telling if she's even in the U.S. anymore or halfway to China by now."

"Great," Matt replied, "What about the auction?"

Hoyt answered, "We were right, C.J. was right, Moorison put up the items to sell. Auction house is real mad too since we had to confiscate all the objects as evidence in a homicide. Chinese government got wind of all this and is demanding their return, both Taiwan and Beijing. On top of the Spanish government claiming it. Just turned into a huge mess, and you'll never guess whose jurisdiction this all falls under now."

Matt had a pretty good idea. "Ok, well Hoyt, I tell you what. I'll stay completely out of your hair today, how's that sound."

The phone went dead, Matt figured that meant Hoyt was ok with not hearing from the detective for the rest of the day. He put it down and went to check on his wife and start some coffee.

She woke up to his sitting beside her holding a tray with a plate of fruit, a cup of coffee and a glass of orange juice. "You hungry?" he asked.

C.J. smiled as she sat up and stretched, "Yes, I am. This is wonderful Matt, you didn't have to really. I really should be doing this for you, not the other way around."

He sat the tray down on the nightstand and reminded her, "I told you, you are taking it easy this weekend. The weekend belongs to us and you are going to rest and I am going to pamper you."

She leaned over and took his cheeks in her hands and delivered a nice slow smoldering kiss. "I love you Matt. What would I do without you?"

He took her hands and told her, "I'm not going anywhere. Now, you eat all that food there and build up your energy. You're going to need it later." He said as he waggled his eyebrows.

She smiled and did just as she was told. Neither of them heard Dr. Whitney Moorison simply open the door, the one Matt left unlocked when he got the paper, and walk right in.

Matt had gone downstairs to get C.J. more coffee and when he walked around the corner was confronted by Moorison gun drawn. He put his hands up slowly.

C.J. got up and turned on the water in the shower. The phone rang and she came back out to get it. She answered it, "Hello?"

It was Walter Aleman. His wife finally succumbed to death and since C.J. had comforted him before, he felt the need to call her. He told her he was going back home to Arizona to live with his brother and his family and try to start a new life. He said through the tears, "I just want to thank you for everything...you and Mr. Houston...I hope that neither of you ever have to experience what I just went though."

She wished him the best through her tears and then hung up. The plastic bag with all information from the doctor had finally come in and sat on her nightstand. She sat down for a second and looked at it. Her plan after bringing it in last night was to go through all of it with Matt. The conversation with Walter and that bag reminded her again how fragile life could be and left her struggling with the risk all parents take when they have children. She didn't feel she could ever be able to handle losing her own child. She got back up and then saw Matt slowly backing in with Moorison standing in her doorway with a gun in her hand.

Matt looked nervously at C.J. as she looked back at him, then at Moorison, and then to the gun.

"What's going on?" C.J. asked with shallow breath.

Moorison spoke up, "You screwed me. I have officers at my house, at my office...I can't get to any money right now because of you. So you are going to help me," she told her.

Matt asked, "What do you mean?"

Moorison stepped further into the room and said, "Don't act stupid. I need money and you have lots of it. Now get dressed and let's head to a couple of the local banks," she motioned the gun for C.J. to move toward the closet.

C.J. moved over to the closet wishing she had a gun stored in there, but she didn't. She changed quickly enough into jeans and a sweater and could hear Matt trying to convince Moorison to leave C.J. out of this as she turned off the water in the shower.

"Look, let her go, huh. Its my name that's on all the accounts. You don't need another hostage," he reasoned.

Moorison seemed to digest that and when C.J. came out of the closet, she pointed her gun at her point blank and said, "I guess you're right. Maybe I should just kill her here and we can be on our way."

Matt stepped between Moorison's gun and C.J. and said, "Lady if you fire that and hit my wife, you will get nothing from me. I won't leave her here bleeding to death. And no amount of threatening me will make me move." Moorison could clearly see the determination in his eyes.

So she decided to remind him who had the gun, "I still hold all the cards here. If you want to live…"

Matt interrupted, "I don't…not without C.J. You kill her and I won't budge an inch and you can shoot that gun all day long but you still won't be any closer to getting out of L.A."

C.J. just stood there stunned. She knew Matt loved her and that she felt for him all the things he had just expressed about her, but his declaration just now really threw her.

Moorison relented and motioned with the gun for the two of them to head to the door. Matt hesitated and looked back at C.J., taking her by the arm and keeping her close as they left and got in C.J.'s car. Moorison made C.J. drive while she kept a gun on her, alternating between holding it on her and Matt. She spoke up at one point and told them, "You know Daoist monks invented gunpowder in China. They were looking for an elixir to increase one's life span. One of the ironies of history, don't you think. You know throughout China's history, scholars have always been the most highly valued. They were always the highest in society."

Once they got to the bank, Matt made a withdraw of $9999. C.J. told Moorison that any withdraw of $10,000 or more is flagged and they won't do it. After making 5 other withdraws at 5 other branches she drove both to the warehouse.

After tying them up Moorison said, "I'm sorry, but I can't let you live. I'm going to take the rest of these items and charter a boat to get me out of the country so I can get to Europe. I can sell these there and still retire comfortably on some remote tropical island."

As she cocked the gun she aimed and C.J. thought for some odd reason about all the issues she had been struggling with from this case. The week started out on such a high note with her and Matt working to start their family. The case and the conversation with the doctor made her think critically about all of the uncertainties in life and made her think twice about bringing a child into the world that she could lose. Deeper within her though, her strength came through as she undid the poorly tied knot. If she let this woman kill her then, she would never even have the chance to start that family. That resolved caused her to strike Moorison and knock her down.

Matt saw how the future he had fought so hard for could all be taken away in a heartbeat. He couldn't imagine losing C.J., no actually he could. He would never forget the night he thought Robert had taken her away from him. No, they had plans now. He had seen how hurt she would be if anything happened to him. His death would hurt her as bad as her would hurt him. At almost the same time as C.J., Matt made his move as he untied himself.

C.J. was physically closer and fought as though she was fighting for a child she had yet to carry. It didn't even take her long to have Moorison almost completely knocked out and Matt then restrained the woman. C.J. got out to a pay phone and called Hoyt, who seemed surprised but told her he would be there in minutes.

She came back into the warehouse and Matt pulled her directly into his embrace. They held tightly to each other as they waited for the police to arrive. As they heard sirens approach, Matt went over to one of the crates and pulled out three things, animal figurines.

C.J. walked over and asked, "What do you think you're doing?"

He held them up and said, "I think Walter deserves something to remember his daughter by. I think Gaby would have wanted him to see this. The Tuckers, too, no one will miss these." Then he looked back at C.J. and handed her one, "I think you should keep one to remember Connie by."

She had started shaking her head, about to inform her husband that he had just graduated to violating international law when he handed her the blue and white panda. She held it and let a tear escape. He took his hand and put it to her cheek gently brushing away the tear as she thanked him. He took the figurine back and went to sneak them out to the car before the cops came in.

Matt rejoined C.J. with Hoyt and the officers as they took Moorison into custody. Hoyt said, "Great…I was almost hoping we wouldn't find anything. I don't know where all this is supposed to go." He was rubbing his neck.

C.J. offered, "How about one box goes to Beijing, one to Taiwan, one to Spain, and one to the County Museum of Art."

He nodded his head, "Let's just hope the leaders of these countries are as diplomatic as you." Then he turned and left.

C.J. looked up at her husband and said simply, "Lets go home."

He took her in his arms and held her for a second before saying, "You sure you're ok?"

She kissed him again and told him, "I'm fine. What about you? You're still recovering." He slipped his arm around her waist and she slipped hers around his waist as they walked back to the car.

He answered, "I'm fine. Let's go."

"We make quite a pair," she said as they walked. He rubbed her head as she leaned against his shoulder.

"That we do, Mz. Houston," he said as they got to the car. He kissed her one more time before taking her home and spending the rest of the weekend going through all of the pregnancy information. Despite the risks both knew they were taking, excited didn't begin to describe how they felt.


	31. Chapter 31

31

That night Matt took C.J. by the hand and led her into the bedroom. Soon enough they were wrapped up in each other. It was almost as though they took turns taking the lead, starting with C.J. Once Matt had gotten to the point that he almost couldn't control himself, he took over.

Making love this time was different. Matt's declaration still rung in her ears and she wanted to show him how much he meant to her in every physical way possible. On top of everything that had happened that day, she almost lost him earlier that week and couldn't get that image of him being wheeled into an operating room out of her head.

For Matt, he couldn't forget the image of C.J. rushing Moorison, knowing the threat to her life that entailed. Added to that was the fact that someone had tried to kill her and she had practically worn herself down most of the week. Oh yes, and there was that kidnapping and him rushing in to the backroom at the auction thinking she had been shot.

Both thought through all of these issues as they held to each other almost competing to show the other the extent of their love first. As they made their way back down from the incredible high of the last hour, C.J. kissed her husband with her hands on his face.

She pulled back to say to him, "I love you, Matt. You know that I love you."

He looked back in her eyes as he stroked her hair and replied, "Of course I do. I love you, C.J. You can't even imagine how much."

She continued to rub her thumb across his cheek as she tried to bring up something that had been on her mind since that morning in the same bedroom with Moorison pointing a gun at her. "Matt, did you mean what you said to Moorison?" she asked softly.

Matt thought for a second as he looked down. He knew where C.J. was going with her question and it was an issue he had thought about a lot in the last few weeks. So he answered, "Yes I did….I love you, C.J. and I don't want to live without you."

They stared at each other for a few more minutes as his hand ran through her hair and ended up brushing her hair back off her cheek. He then continued, "I almost can't bear to think about even having to imagine life without you. I don't think I'll ever forget that night at the penthouse thinking you had died. But C.J., if anything ever did happen, and we did have a child, I would hold tight to him or her. In fact, I think I would hold tighter to that child than I would ever to anyone else because that child would always hold a part of you."

C.J. could feel tears threaten then as she looked up at her husband clearly trying to hold his own back. "I know you would. I just keep thinking about the risk involved in having a child. I've been thinking about this all week. At first, when the doctor told me about the risks, I wasn't really concerned about me, but about the prospect of something going wrong with the baby." She looked down at that point and said, "I don't know how I would be able to handle that."

Matt took her face in his hands and told her as he looked her in the eye, "You would have me there with you and we would get through it together."

She nodded but then said, "Then I thought about what would happen to you if something did happen to me…" 

Before she could say anything else Matt interrupted and said, "I've thought about that too. I wondered just how much like my biological father I might turn out to be. But I know, C.J., that I love you so much and you mean so much to me that I would hold on to our child, not back away. He or she would be my link to you." He started playing with her hair then and said, "He or she would have your curly hair, your eyes, and if we're really lucky your smarts."

They both chuckled and she added, "It could have your eyes and you heart, Matt. I want our child to have that desire in their heart to help others." Then she got serious again and told him, "When we were in that warehouse all those thoughts raced through my mind and I decided that if I let her kill one of us then we wouldn't even have the chance to take those risks and having a child with you means too much to me." She started to cry just a little bit and Matt took her back in his arms and held her tighter than he had in a while.

He told her, "It means too much to me too." After several minutes he broke their embrace and told her, "Let's get some sleep, hum." So she laid her head on his chest and the two went right to sleep. That night each dreamed about the future. C.J.'s dreams were much more peaceful than before whereas Matt's dreams involved him chasing C.J. around everywhere and trying to almost tie her to a couch or bed. Clearly his subconscious was telling him to work on getting her to slow down her pace. The next week Matt would put his plan into motion, the one he drew up while in the hospital, the one that would finally slow her down.


End file.
